The laughing lion, and other stories

I

nd Other Stories

;

ELAIDE PEARSON

' •

BRAR THE BRANCH LIBRARIES

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FAfRY TAJ,

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La lion and oti • stories

FOUR WEIKS - NOT

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

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THE LAUGHING LION

AND

OTHER STORIES

Chang and His Duckling.

The Laughing Lion

and Other Stories

BY

ADELAIDE PEARSON

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
WINIFRED BROMHALL

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NEW YORK

E. P. BUTTON £s? COMPANY

681 FIFTH AVENUE

COPYRIGHT, 1921,

BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

All Rig/its Reserved

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Printed in the United States of America

TO

MY MOTHER

AND TO ALL MOTHERS WHO, LIKE HER,
SEEK TO OPEN FOR THEIR CHILDREN
THE WINDOWS OF APPRECIA-
TION ON THE WORLD
OF BEAUTY

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTION BY FiTzRov CARRINGTON . xi

I THE LAUGHING LION i

II THE REPENTANT PEACOCK ..... 33

III HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS OF THE KING 51

IV THE SADDLER'S SON AND THE DRAGON . 73
V THE KING'S CAT 105

VI ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE . . . 139

VII THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING .... 175

FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

Chang and his Duckling Frontispiece

PAGE

She took off all of the little Princess's clothes . . 7

He did not care for it at all 39

Hasteen would squirt water all over the laughing

Prince 57

He could make some one way off hear what he said 81

A tre-mendous big black cat and, on its back, the

queerest little old woman 109

Long he studied his book of magic 151

The clay duckling on the floor before the Mandarin

laid an egg 191

INTRODUCTION

These stories are real stories; told, not
written; told to children who come to the
Children's Art Centre, 36 Rutland Street,
Boston, and find there things of beauty,
gathered by love for their delight. It is
difficult to avoid being lectured in Bos-
ton. Education makes of young lives a
dreary waste, and Beauty, a Cinderella
among her instructive sisters, save as she
may :cteach something," shyly hides her
head. The Children's Art Centre is
what its name implies — there Beauty may
whisper her message — there the child may
listen to her undistracted by the voice of
the interpreter. Her message is different
to each little visitor; but always it is a
message of beauty, told in its own way

XI

xii INTRODUCTION

to each child, according to his or her will-
ingness to listen, to feel, and, above all
else, to love. Every object exhibited is
believed to be worthy of such love, but
where the choice is wide certain smaller
objects may well escape the notice of the
children. It is about some of these
smaller, less obvious things that these
tales were told. They have been asked
for again and again, and in response to
a demand which it is impossible for Miss
Pearson to supply, they are now printed,
so that other children in other places (not
yet other Art Centres^ alas, for thus far
there is one only!) may hear and enjoy
them. Miss Bromhall, Curator of the
Children's Art Centre, has made a por-
trait of the object which inspired the
story, and likewise has illumined each tale
with an appropriate illustration. They
are tales of lovely things; love made
them. Our children at the Art Centre de-

. INTRODUCTION xiii

lighted in them; they share them with you,
now; for you, too, will love them.

FiTzRoY CARRINGTON.

South End House,
Boston, Mass.
August 26, 1 92 1.

\J

I. THE LAUGHING LION

THE LAUGHING LION

YEARS and years ago, way off in
China, in the heathen old land of
China, there reigned an Emperor who had
only one little boy. His brother, the
Prince, a very ambitious man, was most
anxious to have a little boy too. And what
was his rage when one day he had a little
girl! Now, away off there in China, all
those hundreds of years ago, they didn't
think much of little girl babies, and they
generally threw them away, or drowned
them like kittens.

But the nurses of this little Princess
said, "Oh, our Lord, she is a very beautiful
baby. She is a very healthy baby. Some
day she will doubtless be Empress.'3

4 THE LAUGHING LION

And so the Emperor's ambitious brother
did not make away with his little daugh-
ter, but said, offhand, "Very well, you may
put the Royal mark upon her.53

Because, you must know, all of the
Royal children of that far off Kingdom
were marked with a little secret mark, so
that, no matter what happened to them,
they always would know that they were
Royal children.

So the little Princess grew up to be a
very lovely child; but not paid much at-
tention to by anybody. In fact, for a
Princess, she ran rather wild, and was
great friends with all of the animals in the
Royal Menagerie. One day, when she
was about three years old, she was looking
at some goldfish in a tiny pool, and reach-
ing down her little hand into the water
trying to touch them. Nearby was a poor
woman weeding.

THE LAUGHING LION 5

Now, this poor woman was the wife of
a very rough and cruel camel-driver. This
camel-driver had been away for three
whole years on a long trip with his cara-
van. After he left, his wife had a little
girl, and this little girl baby her mother
loved most dearly; but she knew that
when her cruel husband came home he
would probably throw it away. She had
just heard that her husband might be ex-
pected back the next day.

During these years she had supported
herself and her little daughter by doing
menial work about the Palace, and on this
sad day which she feared would be the last
day of life for her little girl, she was weed-
ing the flower bed in the Royal Garden.
A thought suddenly struck her when she
beheld the little Princess so happy, so
sweet, so very clean and round, playing
with the goldfish. The little Princess

6 THE LAUGHING LION

didn't look a bit more beautiful to the
poor weeding woman than her own rather
miserable little girl. So she conceived the
rather naughty idea of changing the
babies.

"How do you do, little Royal One," she
said to the little Princess. 'Would you
not like to play with the pretty fishes?'3

The little Princess thought this a pretty
good idea, and held up one little white-
stockinged foot preparatory to stepping
into the water.

'Wait a minute, my beautiful one,':
said the weeding woman. 'You will spoil
your lovely clothes if you get them wet.
Let me help you take them off.'' And she
took off all of the little Princess's clothes.

Who so happy now as the Royal Baby.
She wallowed and flopped in the water
and tried to catch the goldfish and cried
and shrieked aloud with joy. The weed-

She took off all of the little Princess's clothes

THE LAUGHING LION 9

ing woman had hastened behind a bush,
and was dressing her own little girl in the
Princess's clothing. When this was ac-
complished, she left her little girl in a far
corner of the garden and returned to the
pool where she had left the Princess, who,
by this time, was rather chilly and had
come out of the water and was hunting for
her clothes.

'Where are my clothes?'1 she said to
the weeding woman. "Somebody has
taken my clothes,'1 and she looked about
quite agitated.

The weeding woman also pretended to
look about, and then said, "Somebody
must have stolen them. You will catch
cold out here in the air. Here, let me put
you in the back of my coat and keep you
warm while I take you home." So she put
the little Princess in the big pocket at the
back of her coat where she usually carried

10 THE LAUGHING LION

her own little girl, and bore her off down
the hill, away from the Palace to the poor
house of the camel-driver.

And sure enough, that night the wicked
camel-driver came home; and he was mad
when he found a little girl baby in the
house. And he raged about, and talked a
lot to everybody in the village about his
wife who kept a silly girl baby alive; and
said he wouldn't bring up anything like
that. And the more he talked, the madder
he got, until finally he went off home and
seized the little Princess and threw her
across the front of his saddle and away he
rode upon a big mule.

Then gallop, gallop, gallop, he went;
outside the town and across the hills, until
he got well off into the jungle. Then he
took the little Princess by the foot and he
threw her far, far, far! And he rode off
home very much pleased with himself, be-

THE LAUGHING LION 11

cause he had proved who was boss in his
house. A very disagreeable man, that
camel-driver.

Now what has happened to the little
Princess? Did she fall upon a rock and
break her dear little neck? She did not.
She fell upon a nice, leafy, bouncey bush,
and she rolled most gently off the bush on
to something very soft and warm and
woolly. And this soft, warm, woolly
thing made a funny little purr-purr noise,
a little grunt that made the Princess know
that she had fallen right on a lion puppy.

Now the little Princess, having been
great friends with all the animals in her
uncle's menagerie, knew all about lion
puppies. And she knew just where to
tickle him behind the ears so he would like
it. And she tickled this puppy behind his
ear, and he said, uOh, grrrgrrgr, do that
some more.3 So she did. Then she did it

12 THE LAUGHING LION

some more. She did it to the other ear too,
and the lion puppy was pleased and he
said, "Oh, grrgrrgr, I do like you," and he
lapped her with his pink, pink tongue.
And, by and by, these two babies, the baby
Princess and the baby lion, went happily
to sleep together under the thick, bouncey
bush.

Now, far off, over the hills, comes
mother lion, leaping and leaping! Sud-
denly, sniff, sniff, sniff — she smells hu-
mans ! There must be humans about, and
she has left her baby under a bush, and
she leaps and bounds; and leaps and
bounds; and jumps upon the bush; and
slides down; and there is her baby per-
fectly safe. And she is so pleased that she
gives him one great big lion-mother kiss,
which is a big sloppy lick from a big lion
tongue. It was such a very big lion kiss
that it slopped all over the lion puppy,

THE LAUGHING LION 13

who was rather small, and lapped all over
the little Princess too; and then, when it
was too late, she found the little Princess.
Oh ! how she would have liked to eat that
nice, soft, tender baby human! But she
couldn't. Couldn't because it wasn't con-
sidered polite among Royal Lions to eat
anybody you had just kissed.

And so, as long as she couldn't eat her,
she adopted the little Princess, and she
brought her up along with her own puppy.
And the little Princess grew strong and
sturdy and brave out there in the green
woods, sleeping under bushes, getting
plenty of nice, strong lion's milk to drink,
and playing with her big brother lion.

Everything went well for two or three
years, when one unhappy day, the keepers
of the King's menagerie came with great
nets, and they caught the Princess's
brother lion, and carried him away roar-

14 THE LAUGHING LION

ing and snarling and tearing at the ropes ;
carried him away to the King's garden and
shut him up in a great big cage. But even
there he didn't keep still. He went on
roaring and grabbing at the bars of the
cage and carrying on. And the keepers
were so scared for fear that he might get
out that they all climbed trees.

Where was the little Princess mean-
while? Was she sitting under a bush,
mourning for her lost brother? She was
not. She was not that kind of a child.
She had followed along after the keepers
as fast as her little-girl legs would carry
her, and arrived at the menagerie about
the time that the keepers climbed the trees.
When these keepers looked down from the
tree tops at this roaring, raging lion which
they had shut up in the cage, what was
their surprise to see a very small, very di-

THE LAUGHING LION 15

lapidated little girl, boldly walking up to
this lion and talking to him.

'What on earth are you doing ?" said
the Princess to her brother.

But he went right on roaring.

"For goodness sake, keep still!' she
said, "and tell me what the trouble is.
Stop ramping around like that. Sit down
and behave and tell me what the trouble

is."

And the lion sat down. He said ''Trou-
ble! I should think there was trouble.
How would you like to be hauled away in
a net and beaten and poked as I have been
and then shut up in this horrid cage?5
And he gave another slap at the bars and
suddenly began to roar again.

"Keep still!' said the little Princess
very firmly. "I don't think there's any
need of your carrying on like that. This

16 THE LAUGHING LION

isn't a bad sort of place at all. I seem to
remember it. I believe we'll like it when
we get used to it.'3

The keepers, by this time, had come
down out of the trees, and one of them
went and got a great hunk of meat on the
end of a long pitchfork and fed it to the
lion, who, with a most ungracious roar,
grabbed it off the pitchfork with one swat
of his big paw. The little Princess
promptly reproved him for his bad man-
ners, and squeezing through the bars of
the cage, which she could easily do, being
rather a small child still, for human babies
do not grow as fast as lion babies, she fell
to, at the other end of the meat, chewing
away at that end while the lion chewed at
the other.

This agitated the keepers quite a lot,
for they didn't think it seemly or safe to

THE LAUGHING LION 17

bite a lion's food at the same time that the
lion was biting it. So they managed to get
the little Princess out of the cage, and the
head-keeper took her home to his wife and
said to her:

"Here, wife, just wash this child up and
dress her decently, will you please?'

But the keeper's wife was very mad.
She said it wasn't any of her business to be
washing stray children. She said, what
was he picking up stray children for, any-
how. Whose child was it? She would
like to know. Anyway, he should take
that child to its own home to be washed.

But the keeper said, "Woman, you
don't know what you are talking about.
To be sure, women very seldom do. That
is a very valuable child. She can tame
lions. I need her in my business; and if
my business doesn't improve soon, you

i8 THE LAUGHING LION

know very well we're going to come short
on a lot of things.'1 For, after all, he
thought it wiser to explain a little.

So the lion-keeper's wife washed the
little Princess very carelessly, never look-
ing at her at all, and talking all the time
to the neighbors about what an abused
woman she was. And she combed the lit-
tle Princess's hair, jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk.
But the little Princess was very plucky
and didn't cry, although I must say she
probably wanted to, as you may imagine.
And the lion-keeper's wife braided the
little Princess's hair, so tight, so tight, that
her poor little eyebrows were pulled right
up.

By this time the lion had gotten home-
sick again, and begun to misbehave. So
the lion-keeper came and got the little
Princess and took her out to the garden.

"Hi, hi," said the little Princess. "What

THE LAUGHING LION 119

are you doing"? I thought I told you to
behave. Do you call this behaving?'

The lion began to calm down when
suddenly he caught sight of his little sis-
ter all clean and combed, and dressed in
a green and orange robe. Tor goodness
sakes,': said he, 'What has happened to
you? Why, you're perfectly lovely. And
your hair all shines. My, my, but it
shines! Why can't my hair shine too? I
want to be beautiful like you are. Oh!
go on, be nice and make me beautiful like
you are."

"Well, you wouldn't like it," said the
little Princess. Tt's a very painful proc-
ess. Personally, I shouldn't think it
worth it."

'But you have no idea how lovely you
are. I believe that if I were beautiful like
that I should probably behave better/2

"Well, it's worth trying," said the little

20 THE LAUGHING LION

Princess. "I'll go and get the thing that
they did my hair with. You won't like it,
though. You won't indeed.'2

So she went back to the lion-keeper's
house and she got the big ivory comb and
came trotting back to the garden to the
place where her foster brother was kept.
She took the big comb and she stuck it into
his long yellow mane and gave a big pull.

"Grrrgrrr, grrrr," said the lion, drawing
back. "Do you have to do it that way?'

"I told you you wouldn't like it," said
the little Princess. "I didn't like it my-
self.'1 And she gave another good pull
with the comb.

"Grrrrgrrrr," said the lion, worse than
ever, and he put his paw up to his head
most rueful-like.

"Well," said the little Princess, "I don't
want to comb your old hair. It's nothing
to me if your hair never gets combed. You

THE LAUGHING LION 21

would have it. And now you don't like
it. I knew you wouldn't anyhow. I
didn't cry, however.'3

The lion looked at her rather doubt-
fully, and in his secret soul wondered
whether that were the whole truth or not.
The little Princess started to go away with
the comb.

"No, no," said the lion. "Come back,
come back ! I really want to be beautiful.
Don't go away.'3

So the little Princess came back and
combed and combed right lustily until
finally, not without more tears on the
lion's part, all the snarls came out of his
beautiful golden mane, and the little
Princess stood back to admire her handi-
work.

"Oh!' she cried, clasping her hands.
"You are beautiful. I think you must be
even more beautiful than I am.:

22 THE LAUGHING LION

"I want to see myself/' said the lion.
"I just want to see myself so beautiful,3'
and he looked very complacent.

So he went over to the little pool where
the drinking water was, and looked into
its smooth surface. Of course, when he
looked down all his hair fell forward
about his face. Imagine his disgust. He
backed hastily away from the pool. He
looked at the little Princess most re-
proachfully, and he said:

"Oh! How could you? How could
you hurt me so much and make me look
so perfectly horrid? I never saw a lion
look as horrid as I do. I wouldn't have
believed it of you.': And he began to cry
like anything and rub his paw up over his
eye and mess his hair up worse than ever.

The little Princess was almost equally
sad, because she really had tried, and she
was pretty tired with the bath and her own

THE LAUGHING LION 23

hair combing, and combing the lion's hair
and everything, and she put her arms up
about him and they just sobbed together.
Finally, she mopped her eyes off and said :
'Very likely, I didn't do it right. I will
observe the lion-keeper's wife tonight,
and tomorrow morning early I will come
to you again. Meanwhile, you had better
be good and don't go carrying on, and
don't cry and feel badly, because we are
going to be very happy in this garden.
We'll have plenty to eat, and we'll be to-
gether to play, and tomorrow I will make
you beautiful.'1

That night the lion-keeper's wife was
going to a party, and she did her hair up
in very great state, and you may well be-
lieve that the little Princess observed
every detail of the operation. She saw
that the lion-keeper's wife put a lot of
sticky stuff on her hair and combed it out

24 THE LAUGHING LION

in great loops that shone and stayed in
place; and then, after that, sprinkled gold-
dust on the gooey hair.

Early the next morning the little Prin-
cess arose and carried the big bowl of
sticky stuff and the big ivory comb and the
bottle of gold-dust out to the menagerie;
and even before breakfast she began to
make the lion beautiful. But it was a long
job, because what with their crying the day
before, and what with the lion's not sleep-
ing very well and scrubbing around a good
deal at night, he had messed his mane up.
So it was well on into the morning before
everything was well done. After the
snarls had all been taken out, the little
Princess combed lots and lots of the sticky
stuff into her brother's hair and combed it
up back from his face in great loops and
curls. When that satisfied her, she sprin-

THE LAUGHING LION 25

kled the gold-dust on it; and oh, she did
admire the result!

uNow,' said she, 'Don't go looking in
that drinking pool and spoil all I have
done. When I was coming down here I
passed a summer house in the garden, with
beautiful shiny, shiny walls; so shiny that
I thought I saw another little girl, I could
see myself so plainly in them. Now, come
along with me.': And she took him firmly
by the ear and led him along the garden
paths towards the summer house.

When she got to the door of the sum-
mer house she said, "Now, shut your eyes,
don't open them until I tell you to.'3 And
the lion screwed his eyes tight together
because he was really rather nervous about
the result of all these things that the Prin-
cess had been doing to his hair.

Finally they arrived in front of the

26 THE LAUGHING LION

great lacquered panel in the wall. Lac-
quer is a sort of very, very shiny varnish,
and is as good as a looking glass to see
yourself in.

"Now," said the little Princess triumph-
antly, "Sit down! Now, open your eyes."

The lion did, and he saw himself in the
wall. And he was beautiful. His hair
stood out away from his face in great
curls, and the gold-dust powder gleamed
and sparkled upon it. Oh, he was pleased !
He threw up one paw and he laughed and
laughed and laughed from joy, because he
was so beautiful.

Now, behind a great colored jar in the
summer house, who should be hiding but
the little Emperor. He was only two or
three years older than the Princess, and he
was a very lonely little boy, because he
had no one to play with, and because he
was an Emperor, and couldn't play any-

THE LAUGHING LION 27

how. This had gone on too long, until
really the child was not well. He never
smiled. The whole court was worried
about him. And this day he had been
wandering alone in the Palace Gardens
when he saw the rather alarming sight of
a very large yellow lion with his hair
combed in the most eccentric, but beauti-
ful, fashion, being led down the path by
the ear, by a fat little girl in a green and
orange robe. So he had hidden behind the
great jar to see what would happen next.
And when the lion laughed, the little Em-
peror, for the first time in years, laughed
himself; and he laughed and laughed, and
the little Princess saw him and she
laughed, and the lion looked around and
looked back at himself in the wall, and
they all three laughed until they abso-
lutely cried.

The courtiers and doctors who had been

28 THE LAUGHING LION

watching the little Emperor from afar
were enormously pleased, of course. Still,
when the Emperor demanded that the lit-
tle girl and the big lion should always
play with him, they didn't like the idea
very well ; but they finally decided, as in-
deed they had to, to let the Emperor have
his way. So they took the little Princess
off to make her fit for Royal Society. And
they gave her a bath all in cologne, and,
while they were wiping her off, what did
they find ? They found the Royal Mark !
And they knew that this child must be the
little Princess who had disappeared so
mysteriously some years before. And they
dressed her up very, very beautifully.
They combed her hair until it shone, made
great loops of its long, thick blackness
over her ears, and placed flowers in the
loops, and put many jeweled pins in the

THE LAUGHING LION 29

back of her hair, as is the fashion in f ar-off
China for little girls of high degree. And
they dressed her in beautiful embroidered
robes with the five-toed dragon of China
wrought upon the back; such robes as only
Royalty may wear. And every day she
played with the little Emperor; and her
brother, the lion, his hair always shining
and always curled, played with the two
children and made happiness for them.

Years later, when our little Princess,
married to the young Emperor, had be-
come the great Empress Han Wu, she in-
stituted many good things, but the best
thing she did was to try to make the chil-
dren happy. Children had been rather put
aside; especially, as she knew all too well,
little girls. So everyone who made chil-
dren happier received a Royal Gift. All
the greatest artists in the Kingdom were

30 THE LAUGHING LION

gathered together to make a fitting gift to
those who brought happiness to children.
And they decided that a portrait of the
laughing lion who had brought happiness
to a little sad Emperor and a little lost
Princess would be the best thing. And so
they made a tiny, tiny statue of the lion
laughing, and these little statues have
been treasured and saved for hundreds,
and hundreds and hundreds of years, —
over a thousand years; in point of fact,
something over twelve hundred years.

Now, why have they been saved all
these years? It isn't because they are ex-
pensive. Because they are not made of
gold, or of silver, or even of nickel. They
are made of bronze, which is about the
same stuff that one-cent pieces are made
of. The reason they have been saved all
these years cannot, then, be because they

THE LAUGHING LION 31

are expensive. No. It is because they are
beautiful. And beauty will always last,
and will always be treasured when things
which we sometimes think are more worth
while have been destroyed.

II. THE REPENTANT PEACOCK

THE REPENTANT PEACOCK

THE whole court was plunged into
mourning because the baby Prince
was sick. Just what was the matter with
him no one seemed to know. The wise
doctors had been called and had felt his
pulse and tried to look at his little tongue,
but they could not make up their minds.
The Baby could not eat and he could not
sleep; his little eyes were dull and he took
no interest in life. All this made everyone
very sad because he was a very sweet Baby
Prince and the whole world loved him.

The doctors thought if he could be in-
terested, and if he could sleep, and if he
could drink some milk, that he would get
well; but, alas, no one could manage this!

35

36 THE REPENTANT PEACOCK

The actors acted their best plays and cut
up their funniest antics for him; and the
baby was frightfully bored. The greatest
musicians played upon their stringed in-
struments and their long, silver flutes, and
sang their sweetest songs; the Baby
yawned. Nothing interested him, poor
little thing ! The great dancers, hundreds
and hundreds of them in wonderful
clothes of every color, danced and pirouet-
ted before him; but he did not care for
them either, and just hid his face in his
nurse's shoulder. No one could think of
anything more to do; and the Baby seemed
to be fading away. So his old nurse took
him out into the garden.

All nature loved the sweet little Prince,
so the flowers lavished their choicest per-
fumes that the very air he breathed might
show their encompassing affection. Love-
ly butterflies of every hue fluttered about

THE REPENTANT PEACOCK 37

the heated brow of the beloved little suf-
ferer, striving with their delicate wings to
brush away the pain and the fever. And
indeed the Baby did seem to breathe a lit-
tle easier. So the chatterbox of a squirrel,
always the gossip of the garden, joyfully
leaped from bough to bough carrying the
glad tidings everywhere, and soon the
branches rustled and the gravel of the
paths scrunched, and all the birds and the
animals, and even the insects of the Im-
perial Gardens, who all loved the little
Prince, gathered to help on his cure. The
birds sang their sweetest and the air was
filled with silver-toned chirpings, and
bubbling songs.

Behind a large bush stalked a Peacock,
proudest of birds because once, when his
great tail was spread its widest, he had
heard the Emperor say, "If I am the great-
est among men, this is surely the King of

38 THE REPENTANT PEACOCK

all the Birds." So up and down the path
he strutted, thinking to himself, "Mm,
hum, let them try all they want to. Bye
and bye, when they see that they really are
no good, / will go in and fix things up.'3
So when there was a pause, and the Baby
just sat in his nurse's arms, the Peacock
stepped out from behind his bush, fixed
his little black eyes, with their yellow
rirns, on the Baby and, with a sudden, hor-
rible squawk, spread out his great purple
and blue and green and yellow shining
tail.

And the Baby was scared almost to
death ! He did not care for it at all. The
loud noise frightened him, and the Pea-
cock's whole state of mind worried him.
Who was so surprised as the Peacock; be-
cause he had expected that everything
would immediately become all right when
he, the King of Birds, took the matter in

He did not care for it at all

THE REPENTANT PEACOCK 41

hand. I can also state that the Peacock
was very mad; and thought to himself,
'Royal or not Royal, this is one of the stu-
pidest babies I have ever seen/' and he
stalked off behind another bush; and kept
thinking what a misunderstood bird he
was; and getting madder and madder.

Just then, the great elephant came
along and held out his big gray trunk, and
the nurse put the little Baby to be cradled
in the curve of it, for the elephant said,
"I will try to rock his little Royal High-
ness to sleep.'3

And so, ve-ry carefully, ve-ry gently, he
rocked to and fro, to and fro, on his sturdy
legs, as the elephants do in the park. You
have all seen them. Slowly, slowly, to
and fro, he rocked. Out from under the
trees and down from the branches dropped
great parti-colored snakes, seated them-
selves on their curled up tails and raised

42 THE REPENTANT PEACOCK

their heads high in the air; and to and fro
they waved their long, supple heads and
necks, hiss-ssing and hiss-ssing a soothing
slumber-song. Sleepier and sleepier and
sleepier grew the little Prince, until, bye
and bye the Baby laid his soft little cheek
against the elephant's hard gray trunk
and went sound asleep!

Everything became perfectly quiet;
even the leaves on the trees did not rustle
any more, the birds and the bugs and all
the little beasts, and all the big beasts
kept per-fectly still; just as if they all
realized that dear little Baby had at last
gone to sleep. Even when they became
very much cramped, not one of them
would move, or do anything to waken the
Baby, because they loved their little
Prince more than they did their own
comfort.

Bye and bye, the Baby stirred, and

THE REPENTANT PEACOCK 43

opened his velvet eyes, and the leaves be-
gan to clap their soft, soft green hands,
and the flowers shed their cool perfumed
petals down about the Baby so that their
fresh softness might caress his cheek. And
the squirrel dashed about telling every-
body, as if everybody didn't know it al-
ready, that the Baby had wakened again.

Down on the low bough of the tree came
the big, green and blue and yellow par-
rots; and they danced solemnly from one
foot to the other foot waving their beaks
to and fro. The Baby looked at them and
almost smiled. The little tiny brown
wren, a dull-looking little bird, came
down and sang a song, pouring out a per-
fect flood of lovely silver music.

The Peacock, behind his bush, looked
out and was madder than ever. 'The
idea, not to know that I am the King of
Birds. And that silly little brown thing

44 THE REPENTANT PEACOCK

making its silly little noise. What is that
compared to my ringing voice and my gor-
geous tail?'3

You see, the Peacock was very much
interested in his own voice and his own
fine tail, while the others were just inter-
ested in helping the Baby.

Just then, a kitten came along — a gray
one — and the Peacock pecked furiously at
him and said, "Now, I suppose you will be
putting in yourself next.': And the kitten
quickly, quickly — as kittens will — ran
around and dashed over to the next path,
and began to chase his tail and roll over
and over in the sunshine, just as all kit-
tens do.

The Baby gave a little crow and held
out his little hand, and they took the kitty
up and put the kitty in the little Prince's
arms, and kitty, although he wanted to go
off and play, snuggled down, quiet, quiet,

THE REPENTANT PEACOCK

and did not try to go away when the Baby
squeezed him pretty hard, as babies will
with kittens.

The Peacock was furious; well, you can
imagine how furious he was!

Just then, over the grass among the
trees, in and out of green shade and
splashes of yellow sunshine came stalking
the great tiger. And the tiger, seeing the
Baby look at him, began to pretend that
he was a kitten; and he, too, chased his tail
and rolled over and over, until the Baby
laughed; laughed out loud!

That was a triumph, and the tiger, lying
on his back with his four big paws, the
claws all hidden, waving in the air, and
his furry yellow stomach showing in the
sunshine, was perfectly contented with his
success. But the Baby wanted more. So
they put the Baby down and let him sit
right on that tiger. Although the tiger

46 THE REPENTANT PEACOCK

was, of course, frightfully uncomfortable,
he would not have moved for anything,
because this was almost the first thing his
beloved Prince had wanted to do for a
long time. The Peacock, peering at the
scene from behind his bush, began to
wonder; began to wonder whether the
tiger realized how silly he looked; and
began to feel the least bit uncomfortable
because he himself had thought so much
about the way he was looking.

Now came the lion strutting along,
shaking out his silky mane; and seeing
how perfectly wretched was his one-time
rival, the tiger, he went to the rescue by
bending over his head, and shaking his
long hair at the Baby. This, of course,
delighted the Baby, and you can guess
what he did, because all babies, Royal or
otherwise, do the same thing when they
can get their busy little hands into hair.

THE REPENTANT PEACOCK 47

He seized it and he pulled that lion's hair
so hard that the tears came right into the
lion's eyes; but, of course, he did not growl
and he did not try to get away.

The big brown bear who had been trot-
ting up and down, up and down, fright-
fully worried for fear he could not do
anything for his Prince, now that it was
time for him to go in, went over, and the
nurse picked the Baby up and sat him on
the bear's soft, shaggy, brown, furry back,
and gently, gently, the big bear scuffled
down the path.

The Peacock behind the bush suddenly
realized how horrid he had been. The
lion, the King of Beasts, had let the Baby
pull his hair and had made himself as
nothing, so long as the Prince was satis-
fied; and the Peacock, from being very
haughty and mad became very, very sorry
because he had acted so selfishly. He put

48 THE REPENTANT PEACOCK

his head back and hid his eyes in the
feathers of his back, and folded his tail
tight, and cried and cried and cried; he
was so ashamed of himself.

Meanwhile, the big bear, carrying the
Baby along, stopped when he saw a little
calf, and the Baby saw the calf too, and
the little calf danced for the little Prince.
He danced in the funny way calves do,
hopping up on all four legs at once, stif-
fening his tail and coming down with a
bump, and then doing it all over again.
And the Baby did laugh. Just then the
calf's mother, a lovely red cow, came along
and called her baby to dinner, and the
little Prince acted as if he, too, would like
some of the cow's warm milk. So they
fetched a golden cup and filled it full of
the rich, creamy milk, and the Baby drank
it all. The little calf was ever so happy

THE REPENTANT PEACOCK 49

to give his milk to his Prince, even if his
own supper was rather meagre in con-
sequence.

Now there was real joy throughout the
garden, for the Baby really was well. He
had slept, and he had laughed, and he had
eaten, and it is the mission of babies to do
very little more than that, you know, even
if they are Royal babies.

As they started in a procession for the
palace, they passed close by the poor, un-
happy Peacock, and the Baby's eye was
caught by the gleam of the sun on the iri-
descent feathers of the Peacock's neck.
He held out his little hand, so the bear
went very close beside the Peacock, and
the Baby stroked the lovely curve of the
Peacock's neck. Just think how that Pea-
cock felt ! He did not dare to uncover his
eyes; he just stood there and trembled

50 THE REPENTANT PEACOCK

with joy. Joy to think that at last he, too,
could give some pleasure to the poor little
Prince.

And the Wise Men who were observing
all these things, when they were making
memorials of this happy recovery of the
Royal Baby Prince, decided to make little
bronze statues of the Peacock; not the
Peacock, King of Birds, but the Peacock
of soft curves and shiny neck, who has at
last forgotten his own glories in the desire
to serve a little sick Baby.

III. HASTEEN SAVES THE
JEWELS OF THE KING

HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS
OF THE KING

HASTEEN is (as nearly as could be
ascertained from the Century Dic-
tionary) the Hindu word for elephant.
This story about a little carved ivory box
was an order from a small boy who had
been reading a book about police-dogs and
said that was the only kind of story that
was interesting. He expressed absolute
disbelief in the possibility of connecting
the little box with any "real story," but
was willing to try anything once, appar-
ently, for he came the next week to the
story-telling and so greatly approved of
"Hasteen" that when the children were
discussing what they should have for the

53

54 HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS

second story he volunteered, 'What's the
matter with having this one again?'

A hot, thick jungle! Awfully hot it is
there; and muggy and moist and damp.
Under the trees the water stands in pools,
and the air is heavy with strange scents,
and with the buzz of myriads of mosqui-
toes, and the whir of the wings of hun-
dreds of strange insects.

Suddenly a crashing! crashing! crash-
ing! And through the hot, thick jungle
stamps and tramps and pushes a big herd
of elephants. They are led by a big,
shifty-looking old fellow with wicked lit-
tle red eyes, who, when he has all the rest
of the elephants started down a sort of
road in the forest, manages to get out of
the way somehow, and the great herd of
wild, free elephants, bellowing and
tramping and plunging, suddenly find

HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS 55

themselves securely shut in a great en-
closure of huge logs strongly fastened to-
gether. At first the elephants are very
mad, and rage about trying to break down
the fence; and they beat one another, as
well as the barrier, with their trunks, push-
ing and pulling and carrying on; that is,
all except one large elephant who stands
near the middle as still as she can, sway-
ing slowly on her four big legs, and fight-
ing off the blows and pushings of the
frightened and ugly elephants. She is
shielding her tiny little two days' old
baby. He is rather a naughty baby and
keeps trying to get out from under his
protecting mother. Her four legs are as
big and round as great tree trunks, and her
huge body is high up over her baby; but
he, silly little fellow, tries to get out every
now and then, and has to be softly
spanked by his anxious mother. For an

56 HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS

elephant-baby he is really very charming.
He is only about three feet high and he is
covered with soft hair, showing that some
time he will be a very beautiful elephant.

When the herd of wild elephants was
sorted by the King's men, the baby ele-
phant was found, and his mother chained
up with the others. They put big chains
around their legs, you know, and fasten
them to forest trees or some other very
strong object until they have them tamed.

When the King got back to his pink-
walled palace he found, to his great joy,
that a baby Prince had been born while he
had been out hunting elephants. Then,
indeed, were there great rejoicings; pa-
rades of the army, games of every sort,
fireworks, f eastings, decorations ; relations
from far and near came to the celebration,
bearing gifts to the little baby Prince, who
was given the name of Selim. Rama Dhu,

Hasteen would squirt water all over the laughing Prince

HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS 59

the head elephant keeper, brought as his
gift, the tiny new baby elephant, now
named Hasteen, who had already been
taught to lift his little trunk in salute.

As Prince Selim grew up Hasteen was
his almost constant companion. He
learned to mount the baby Prince when
they were both hardly two years old; to
curl up his trunk as a step so that Selim
could scramble up to Hasteen's broad
back. Together these two went swim-
ming in the great marble pool, and Has-
teen would squirt the water all over him-
self and over the laughing Prince. Won-
derful water games they had, as they grew
older; they played ball together for hours
at a time. Selim would throw the ball and
Hasteen would bat it with his long trunk.
So they would have it, to and fro, until
both became very expert.

After Selim was seven years old he

60 HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS

often accompanied his father on hunting
expeditions. They went far into the
jungle by night, the King on his elephant,
Prince Selim on Hasteen. Quantities of
men with torches, and drums, and trum-
pets, and long sticks spread out, drove the
wild animals out from the forest into the
bright moonlight where the King could
shoot them. Selim became very expert in
throwing the spear, and shooting with the
bow and arrow. Rabbits would run out
and deer of various sorts; wolves and hye-
nas; panthers, tigers, and even lions.

Once, when they were standing in the
shadow waiting for the great drive to be-
gin, a leopard leaped from the high branch
of a tree straight at Prince Selim on Has-
teen's back. Now all that ball practice
served them well, for Hasteen swung his
trunk like a baseball bat, gave one mighty
swat, and biff ! — that leopard was entirely

HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS 61

bashed up against a giant tree trunk. If
he had been a ball, it would have been a
home run. The King had been breathless
with fright when he first saw the leopard
and realized the danger his son and heir
was in. His relief and excited apprecia-
tion of Hasteen's agility with his trunk
may well be imagined.

During the summer months, the whole
court moved from the lowlands by the
jungle up to the white summer palace
among the hills near the mighty snow-
capped mountains. Elephants were usu-
ally not taken to this palace, but when
Selim was two years old he pined so for
Hasteen that he could neither eat nor
sleep, and Hasteen, already one of the
most beautiful elephants in the Royal
Herd, also could not eat nor sleep. So
hastily the Royal Prince's elephant was
brought to the summer palace, and from

62 HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS

that time, boy and beast were not sepa-
rated again.

One night, when Selim was about ten
years old, he returned very late from the
hunting of mountain goats. The Prince
could throw a javelin and shoot big ar-
rows with surprising accuracy now. One
reason for this was that Hasteen always
held himself so steadily when the moment
to shoot came. From being so much to-
gether Hasteen and the Prince had come
to understand each other and almost
talked, as one may say, together. Hasteen
knew ever so many words and could fol-
low a conversation, and he made little
groans and breathings and movements
which Selim could understand perfectly.
On this night that I spoke of, it was very
warm and Selim could not sleep, so he had
permission to go hunting or stay out
riding.

HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS 63

When they had finally returned to the
palace, Selim sat for a while high up on
Hasteen's back where there was a breeze.
Hasteen was now a very, very big ele-
phant; almost twelve feet tall, with
mighty tusks twice as long as Selim was
high, of the most beautiful ivory. No
scars marred his body. His skin was clear
from much scrubbing. His toe-nails were
polished to a glittering brightness. His
harness and trappings were of the finest
leather studded with golden and jeweled
bosses, like the bronze bosses on ancient
shields. His saddle cloth was of richest
velvet, thick and silken, embroidered with
pearls and heavy with gold thread.

Prince Selim rode in the square box-
like hoodah which had been built for him
as soon as Hasteen grew up. You know
the sort of saddle; you have all seen it in
the circus on the elephants. This warm

64 HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS

night the Prince did not want to go in to
bed. He was just thinking of suggesting
to Hasteen that they have a nice "shower
bath" in the great marble swimming pool
when, suddenly, Hasteen made the sign
which meant, "Look out! Keep still!
Something here which will bear inspect-

ing."

Cautiously Selim peered over the edge
of the hoodah. A faint whistle was heard,
then an answering note followed. It
might have been birds, but it did not
sound like any birds that either Hasteen
or Selim had ever heard before. Still,
anyone except an intelligent animal like
Hasteen would never have suspected any-
thing wrong.

'What is it?' whispered the Prince.

"Look out!' came the warning signal
from the wise animal. "Keep quiet!
Danger here!'

HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS 65

Soon, slithering through the shadows of
the palace wall slunk a dim shape. It
looked to Selim like one of the palace
guards, Gafir, who was much trusted by
the King. A shuffling sound was heard
off towards the drive! And under the
bushes, along the gravel, came another
strange shape crawling from shadow to
shadow. Gafir went over to the second
man and they began to whisper together.
The angle of the palace wall in which they
stood seemed to have some sort of an echo,
so clearly could Selim hear every word
they said. Perhaps, though, it was the ex-
citement, for the first words of Gafir's
were, "It is all arranged, horses and relays
all the way to the coast for us four. Get
you the Mabel Kalin' and its fellows, and
we start from the Temple wall an hour
before dawn.'3

"The Mabel Kalin,' whispered Selim

66 HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS

breathlessly. Hasteen did not respond.

"I cannot go," groaned the other man,
"my leg is broken, I fear. I will take your
place here, and go you to the hiding-place
which is under the great stone which marks
the boundary of the King's Hunting Park.
My brother awaits me twelve paces from
the outer gate. He will show you the
place and help roll away the great stone.'3

Gafir started to go away and then came
back. "Here, come to my room and lie
down until one of us comes to help you.
I will give you water and bandages and let
us hope you can ride when the time comes,
for ride or die you must ere dawn,': and
away they scuffled through the darkness.

Now, "Jabel Kalin" was the name of
the chiefest and most brilliant jewel of all
the King's treasure. It shone on his fore-
head in the front of his turban of finest
muslin on all great occasions. Ordinarily,

HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS 67

it was packed away in his strong box.
Selim knew that something had gone
wrong in the palace, but that "Jabel
Kalin" was missing he had not surmised.
Naturally, he was very much thrilled by
discovering the thief; and trembling with
excitement he leaned down and whis-
pered :

"I say, Hasteen, did you hear that?
Shall we notify the court? or shall we go
for it? Oh! Let's go for it!"

Of course they would. They were
neither of them very old and they felt
that if Gafir were a traitor, whom could
they trust? So go for it they did. Has-
teen, as soon as he got away from the
palace, hurried along as fast as his four
broad stumps of legs would go, through
the town, across the fields, through the
jungle paths, and up the mountain: up
and up until no more were there trees nor

68 HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS

bushes, and high up stood the big rock that
marked the boundary of the King's Hunt-
ing Park.

Of course, Hasteen was stronger than
any number of men and, putting his fore-
head against the great rock, he easily
rolled it over, and there, sure enough,
under the stone, was something wrapped
in a dirty turban cloth. He picked it out
with his trunk and handed it to Selim who,
after unrolling the cloth, gave a glad
shout :

'We've got it, Hasteen! It is indeed
Mabel Kalin,' as well as many other
jewels,'' and he placed the package in the
front of his cloak.

Just then, there were sounds of men
coming up the slope, and Hasteen started
back towards the palace, but not so quickly
but that he was discovered by the thieves.
They hastened up, saw that the stone had

HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS 69

been rolled away and the jewels taken.
They shouted. "Aha! Some one on an
elephant. Take this then!' And together
they started the great stone rolling down
the slope after Hasteen and Selim. It
bounded along and hit a twisted tree
whose roots were insecurely fastened in
the soil. That joined the stone in its
downward path, and in an instant an ava-
lanche was formed ; masses of rocks, earth
and bushes hurling themselves down the
mountain-side.

Hasteen heard it on his trail and ran
harder and harder. His clever brain was
working behind his keen little eyes, for
he knew that he could not get away from
the avalanche. He was determined, how-
ever, to kill this frightful thing which was
pursuing his beloved Prince Selim. So,
as he ran, he curled up his trunk, seized
Selim by the girdle and lifted him out of

7o HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS

the hoodah, and deposited him gently in
a little hollow. Then turned quickly and
charged up the slope towards the ava-
lanche. Just before he reached it he firmly
planted himself on his great legs and bent
his great faithful head to receive the
brunt of the attack. The avalanche hit
him and crushed him to pulp in an instant,
but — it parted into two streams which
came together again farther down the
mountain, but avoided Selim, leaving him
quite untouched and unharmed, cowering
in the hollow, fainting with horror, and
clasping to his bosom the Jewels of the
King. In the morning he was found by
the agonized searchers from the palace, a
white-faced, limp little boy clasping to his
bosom untold wealth, but grief-stricken by
the loss of his friend Hasteen.

Great were the rejoicings at the court
over the finding of Selim, and great was

HASTEEN SAVES THE JEWELS 71

the mourning for Hasteen, the Faithful.
All that could be found of him was a frag-
ment of one great white ivory tusk and the
mangled pulp of the great dead body. The
King had the ivory cut into thin slabs, and
from it he had his most skillful artisan
make an ivory box in which he kept "Jabel
Kalin," and his other jewels, so that Has-
teen, even in death, might still guard the
Jewels of the King.

IV. THE SADDLER'S SON AND
THE DRAGON

THE SADDLER'S SON AND THE

DRAGON

ONCE upon a time, in the Land of
Far Away, in the Time of Long
Ago, there reigned a wise King. He ruled
his kingdom well, but his people never
could seem to get on because they were
always fighting someone; and the reason
why they were always in fights and
squabbles with their neighbors was on ac-
count of the Dragon.

Now, the Dragon inhabited a cave near
the top of a mountain, and he was a very
voracious dragon. That is the proper
word to use about dragons. It means he
had a large appetite. It was also a true
word. He had. And his appetite im-

75

76 THE SADDLER'S SON

pelled him to go about marauding, and
killing and eating the tenderest humans
he could find. As these were usually beau-
tiful and attractive youths and maidens,
the people of all that countryside had ac-
quired the pleasant habit of feeding him
with the youths and maidens of some other
nation. So some city was always going
out and stealing people from other towns
and cities to feed the Dragon. Which,
naturally, created a certain amount of
hard feeling between these communities.
The Dragon was a sure enough dragon.
He was enormously big. He was also sur-
passingly beautiful, of a lovely shade of
pale green; and he had large paws that
he stamped with; and when he stamped,
his wicked claws struck sparks from the
mountain; and out from his nostrils
poured steam and poisonous gases, so that
anyone passing near him, when he blew

THE SADDLER'S SON 77

on them, immediately was scorched and
shriveled and ready to be eaten. His eyes
shot flames. In books, they would be
called "baleful" eyes. And he had a most
frightfully agile tail with a sting and a
spear in the end of it. So that, if he did
not get a chance to blow poisonous gases
at you, he would smack you sidewise with
his lovely long green tail, and quite
scrunch all your bones; or he would stick
its spearlike end right through you, and
hold you in front of his mouth until he
had blown enough steam on you to have
you cooked to a turn. He was, you see,
very well adapted to being a dragon on
the mountain.

Now this wise King I was telling you
about, knew that these things were going
on all the time, and that his nicest young
people were being consumed by the
Dragon, and he decided that it simply

78 THE SADDLER'S SON

could not go on. What between fighting
one another to get food for the Dragon,
and harassing the Dragon himself just to
prove how smart they were, the King
could see all his people continually quar-
reling among themselves, and civilization
getting in a very bad way indeed. Civil-
ization means having a good time without
annoying other people about it, and being
able to run around and do what you want
to. At least, that is part of what it means.
Why, the finest young men in that king-
dom, when they became Knights, used
sometimes to go up to the mountain and
assail the Dragon just to prove how brave
they were! If a Knight managed to get
away, after having in some way or other
given the Dragon a swat with a sword, or
a successful poke with a spear, he was con-
sidered a great hero. They frequently did
not get away, however. All this was, of

THE SADDLER'S SON 79

course, very bad for the Dragon's disposi-
tion, which got more and more irritable.

The King announced that this sort of
thing had been going on long enough.
After thinking it over, he decided that the
Dragon must learn to eat like other people
and not eat the people themselves. That
was all very well, but how were they going
to communicate this idea to the Dragon?
He had developed such a suspicious dis-
position that no one could go near enough
to talk to him ; at least, not very safely. A
good many messengers were sent to the
Dragon; but he acted very dragon-ish, he
— well — he carried on. That is the only
word you could use. He just carried on.
He stamped and he snorted, and he flicked
his beautiful long tail about, and the mes-
sengers whom he did not succeed in eating,
he scared nearly out of their wits. The
whole court was in great despair over this

8o THE SADDLER'S SON

because the King was very firm that some-
one must tell the Dragon that on the very
next Sunday he had to reform and eat
roast lamb and currant jelly instead of
shredded humans.

Now, the most uriconsidered person at
the court was the little ten year old son
of the Royal Saddler, the man who made
the saddles for all the horses in the King's
army. He was a little person of no im-
portance; but every one knew him; he was
so brave and so generous and so pretty,
and he rode his pony so well, and threw his
little spear so straight, and was always
willing to do the little errands about the
place and, above all, he could play ball.
If he had lived in America, he would cer-
tainly have been a National Hero. He
could throw a ball so far and so straight
that no one in the court could compete
with him.

He could make some one way off hear what he said

THE SADDLER'S SON 83

Now, he was very fond of playing about
in his father's workshop; most small boys
are. And he had discovered that, by roll-
ing up one corner of a big piece of leather
and shouting through it, he could make
some one way, way, way off, hear what he
said. You see, his invention was really a
megaphone, only they did not know it
there. They called it something quite
different, a really very terrifying name.
It sounded something like when you
sneeze when you have tonsilitis. I won't
tell you what it was because I should not
like to have you repeating it. The King
was delighted with t!his invention of the
Saddler's Son, and they took it out on to
the mountain next to the Dragon's moun-
tain and they roared through it all these
reformatory ideas of the King.

At first, the Dragon was not at all
pleased, and carried on; but gradually he

84 THE SADDLER'S SON

came to see reason and he consented to try
it for once. "Anything once" was his
motto. So the next Sunday, bright and
early, while the Dragon was still having
his heathen Sunday-morning nap, they
sneaked up to the door of his cave and they
left some lovely roast lamb and a lot of
currant jelly, and mashed potatoes, and
green peas, and corn fritters — oh, a lovely
dinner!

When the Dragon came out, however,
he looked at it with a good deal of sus-
picion. It looked sort of messy to him and
he roared at the King and his court, who
had gathered on the next hilltop with
telescopes, that he did not think he was
going to like the new arrangement; and he
flopped one horny paw right into the cur-
rant jelly, thinking, on account of the red
color, that it was a piece of meat. Of
course, the jelly all slumped together and

THE SADDLER'S SON 85

the Dragon was rather scared. He backed,
and blew steam and poison out of his nose,
and fired sparks out of his eyes, and looked
as ferocious as he possibly could, and that
was very ferocious indeed, because, you
know, Dragons are just naturally fero-
cious. He picked up the paw that had
gone into the jelly and he licked it, rueful-
like.

Oh ! what a change now came over the
Dragon. "My! my!" he roared, "I like
that, it's good! Send slaves with barrels
of it."

But the King, through the megaphone,
roared back, "No, you must eat your bread
and vegetables and meat first. You can-
not have a barrel of jelly until you have
eaten your dinner. It will give you a
stomach ache ; and you have got an awful
lot of stomach, at least two yards of it,
and you would hate all that collywobble.':

86 THE SADDLER'S SON

The Dragon thought there might be
something in that and, without more ado,
he proceeded to eat all the other good
things provided. To his tremendous as-
tonishment he really liked them; and he
said so loudly and clearly, and he stopped
pouring the poison out of his nose. He
was looking around, actually looking
around to find a napkin to wipe the gravy
off his whiskers. You see, he was a very
hopeful Dragon. It was almost worth
while trying to tame him.

So every day some town carried up to
the Dragon a nice dinner; and on Sunday
he had jelly, but not on every day, because,
with the amount of jelly that the Dragon
wanted, the supply would not have held
out. Gradually, he looked forward to
having his dinner brought to him and
wondered what it would taste like. Be-
cause, you know, our food has so many

THE SADDLER'S SON 87

different tastes, and just raw humans
spitted on the end of the Dragon's green
tail always tasted the same. I think
myself the Dragon had probably gotten
fearfully sick and tired of this diet, and
that is why he was willing to change.

As I say, from looking forward to hav-
ing his dinner brought to him, he began
to like to talk to all sorts of people, until
finally he became so very sociable that, if
some one were not there in the cave visit-
ing with him most of the time, he became
very, very lonely. Everybody admired
the Dragon. You could not help it; that
is, if you had seen him; he was such a
lovely color, and he lay around in such
pretty curves. The King was his most
enthusiastic admirer, and kept saying,
"Oh, if I could but have some jewels the
color of the Dragon!" But nobody knew
anything about such jewels. All the arti-

THE SADDLER'S SON

sans of the court, the painters and the
dyers, the jewelers and the makers of
chinaware, all tried to reproduce the
lovely green color of the beautiful and
much admired Dragon. But to no avail.
The Saddler's little Son was a great
favorite with the Dragon. He used to go
up the mountain and talk to him day after
day. You see things were nice and peace-
ful at the court. Then suddenly all this
was changed; and everyone was plunged
into gloom. For the little Princess, Sun-
beam, the King's only child, had disap-
peared! The only thing anyone could
think of was that the Dragon had had a
relapse and eaten her. When they ac-
cused the Dragon of doing this, though,
his poor heart nearly broke. He just laid
his tail limp over the edge of a precipice
and he put his head down on his front
paws, and he — shed a tear. He was very

THE SADDLER'S SON 89

much surprised at the tear. It came out
very hard; and it was a round, hard thing,
and hurt his eye when it came out, be-
cause Dragons are not supposed to cry,
and they are not made so they can do it
easily.

The Dragon said he was misunderstood.
The Dragon said he never would think of
eating a Princess. In the first place, he
liked the Princess alive. He liked to see
her playing about, and he liked the King,
and did not want to make him unhappy;
and, in the next place, he much preferred
the food he was getting now to even the
tenderest Princess, whether cooked whole
or eaten raw.

Well, it was a nine days' wonder, any-
way. No one could understand anything
about it; and, bye and bye, they all gave
it up and decided that someone must have
stolen the Royal child. But the King's

THE SADDLER'S SON

gloom did not lift. You see, it was his
little girl who was lost. The court re-
doubled its efforts to find him a green gem
the color of the Dragon, — anything to dis-
tract his mind from the loss of his dear
little Princess Sunbeam!

The Saddler's Son, in conversation with
the Dragon, asked him if he did not think
that even a little boy might find a green
jewel for his King.

The Dragon, after deep thought, said to
him, "Go to the Lake of Lagremamonte.
I have a hunch you could find something
there. I have not anything much to give
you for help except this tear of mine. You
may take that. Put it in your bag, it might
come in handy."

So the Saddler's Son took the Dragon's
tear and bravely set forth on his quest. As
he strode blithely through the forest he

THE SADDLER'S SON 91

saw a bent and withered old woman seated
by the roadside.

'Where are you going, my son/3 said
the old woman.

"I seek the Lake of Lagremamonte,"
said the Saddler's Son. "Know you in
which direction it lies?"

And the old woman said, "Go to the
next field and there you will see a herd
of wild mountain ponies. Catch the one
with the yellow mane and the three white
hairs in its tail. Mount it and ride forth,
and I am sure that you will be successful.
Only mind that nothing happens to the
white hairs in the pony's tail.'3

The Saddler's Son did as he was di-
rected,— leaped on the back of the yellow-
maned pony, who immediately started on
a mad gallop, over mountains, across
fields; through forests, around lakes;

92 THE SADDLER'S SON

swimming rivers, and leaping through the
clouds on the mountain tops, for days and
days, it seemed to him. Perhaps it was
because he was a little boy that it seemed

m

long to him. Perhaps it really was for
days and days that they traveled.

As he rode and rode, clutching the long,
yellow mane of the mountain pony, he
found that the middle of the mane had
been braided, — a long, long, long braid all
curled up like a lassoo, a cowboy's rope.
This yellow braid interested him very
much; and, just so he should not lose the
pony, he took the end of the long, yellow
braid and tied it firmly to his belt. Bye
and bye, the pony began to lag a little. It
was getting tired. So they stopped at the
tent of some Arabs in the desert and
begged for food. Arabs are always most
hospitable people, you know, and they
sponged off the pony and wiped out its

THE SADDLER'S SON 93

mouth and gave it water to drink; and
they gave the Saddler's Son cold milk and
a flat piece of fresh bread — Arab bread,
baked on stones.

When he and the pony were rested and
fed, he asked the Arabs if they knew where
the Lake of Lagremamonte was.

'Tt lies behind the mountain, yonder;
but go not near, for it is inhabited by a
most horrible giant."

The Saddler's Son thought to himself
that no giant could possibly be as fear-
some as his dear old friend, the Dragon.
He was not as timid as most small boys
would have been, so he and the pony
started on running and running across the
desert and through the forest.

Bye and bye, a red deer ran out in front
of them and ran along just ahead of them.
Suddenly, crash ! and the deer disappeared
over the edge of a precipice. The pony

94 THE SADDLER'S SON

stopped just in time; but the Saddler's
Son was thrown from its back and fell over
the precipice, seizing in his flight a hand-
ful of pink blossoms.

At the bottom of the precipice lay a
round lake just the color of the Dragon!
And all about it rose smooth precipices.
No grass ! No paths ! Shiny and smooth
the rocks rose right from the water. There
was no beach and no shore. There was no
living thing down near the lake. Swim-
ming for its life and trying to find a land-
ing was the poor red deer. The Saddler's
Son did not reach the water. He was
swinging to and fro like a clock pendulum
on the end of the forest pony's yellow
braid.

He was just trying to climb up the braid
when the water began to heave and bub-
ble, and right out of the middle of the
green Lake of Lagremamonte rose a most

THE SADDLER'S SON 95

FEARFUL MONSTER. He was enormously
big. His skin was brick-colored. He had
one horrible bright blue eye sticking out
from the middle of his forehead. His
mouth was wide, with large purple lips
and horrible long yellow fangs of teeth;
and his ears were so big, and stuck out and
hung down so far that they made a regu-
lar ruffle of bright red flesh around his
huge brick-colored and purple face. Long,
hairy arms bulging with great muscles he
had; and his hands were as big as big
could be, with queer skin between the fin-
gers, so the fingers were not really sepa-
rate. He seized that red deer with one
of his huge paws and scrunched it up.
Every bone was broken. You knew it by
the awful sound it made. And then he ate
it in two large gulps, — the whole deer.
That will give you some idea how big and
horrible he was.

96 THE SADDLER'S SON

Then his one eye lit upon the Saddler's
Son swinging at the end of the mountain
pony's yellow braid; but it did not see
him long. For the Saddler's Son, drop-
ping his pink flowers in his excitement,
thrust his hand into his pocket, pulled out
the only weapon he could reach, the
Dragon's tear, and lammed it straight at
the Monster, hitting him full in his one
eye.

Now, if this tear had hurt the Dragon
when it came out of the Dragon's eye, be-
lieve me, it hurt the eye of the Monster
when it went in a great deal more. For it
began to sizzle and boil; and it screwed
and dug its way right into the back of the
Monster's eye, until the horrible creature
was entirely blind. Roaring and beating
the air, he started for the Saddler's Son,
but the Saddler's Son got himself out of
the way, swinging to and fro at the end of

THE SADDLER'S SON 97

the mountain pony's yellow braid, and the
Monster bumped himself against the
smooth precipice. Still more enraged, he
felt around for some weapon, the Sad-
dler's Son meantime climbing hand over
hand up the mountain pony's yellow
braid, to safety. But there was nothing
along the smooth sides of the Lake of
Lagremamonte which the Monster could
use to throw at the Saddler's Son. Reach-
ing down his great webbed paw he seized
a handful of the green waters of the lake,
squeezed the wet out of them, so that they
became quite solid, and threw the lump of
lovely green, transparent stone upon the
bank where he thought the Saddler's Son
was standing.

The Saddler's Son recognized that this
was what he had been waiting for, because
here was a bit of stone from which jewels
could be made that were just the color of

98 THE SADDLER'S SON

his friend, the Dragon. So he jeered and
shouted at the Monster, and the giant
seized more handfuls of the lake water,
squeezed the wet out of them, and hurled
them up onto the banks, in the form of
beautiful bits of jade-stone. In one of
these handfuls, he gathered up the little
pink flowers the Saddler's Son had
dropped into the water.

Meanwhile, the Dragon's tear was siz-
zling and burning into the head of the
Monster, whose writhings and rushings in
the green waters of the Lake of Lagrema-
monte became weaker and weaker until
finally, with many chokes and gurgles, he
sank beneath the surface and has never
since been seen.

The Saddler's Son took off his beautiful
red leather cape and spread it out on the
ground and gathered into it all the lovely
lumps of jade-stone which the Monster

THE SADDLER'S SON 99

had made by squeezing the wet out of the
pale green waters of the Lake of Lagrema-
monte; and he started home, plodding
along beside the pony who was laden with
the jade.

When they got to the Arabs' tents and
told them of their adventures, the Arabs
were indeed surprised. They offered the
Saddler's Son two sturdy mules with bas-
kets on their backs to carry his jade-stones,
so that he might once more ride the pony.
Thus, proudly leading his two mules, and
riding on the wild mountain pony with
the yellow mane, the Saddler's Son came
home in triumph, not forgetting first, be-
sides thanking the Arabs, to present them
with one of the jade-stones — that one
that had the little pink flowers pressed
into its side. And for hundreds and hun-
dreds and hundreds of years the Arabs
kept that stone in their family. They used

ioo THE SADDLER'S SON

it to hold down the corner of their best rug
when they had company, until finally they
gave it away to someone who had been
very kind to them, and it came here to
America; and it is in one of the cases of
the Children's Art Centre in Boston now
at this minute. But now let us return to
the adventures of the Saddler's Son.

You may imagine the relief at the court
when this load of jade-stones was pre-
sented to the King. The Saddler's Son
went home, and his father was very much
pleased with him, of course. The little
boy thought that, as a souvenir of his ad-
ventures at the Lake of Lagremamonte,
he would cut off the long yellow braid
from the yellow mane of the wild moun-
tain pony and keep it.

What was his surprise, as soon as he had
cut it off, to have the pony turn to him
and say, "Oh! I am glad you have done

THE SADDLER'S SON 101

that at last! I was afraid you were not
going to. If you had not, and I had had
to die of old age among those mountain
ponies, it would have been — well, I don't
know what it would have been; but I do
not think anyone else would have liked it
either. Now, if you want to know why,
I can't tell you; but to-night, in the middle
of the night, if you can keep awake and get
out of the house without anyone knowing
anything about it, and get out to where I
am, and pull the three white hairs out of
my tail and bury them under an oak tree,
without anybody knowing anything about
it but just you and me, you will see some-
thing that will surprise you!"

Of course, the Saddler's Son wanted to
do this, but he was pretty tired, and he
was a little boy. So, for several nights,
he awoke just too late, or he didn't wake
up until morning; and the pony began to

102 THE SADDLER'S SON

look very reproachfully at him, so he made
a noble resolve. He just would not go to
sleep; and, being a child of a good deal of
determination, as you may see from his
other adventures, he did not go to sleep.
A few minutes before midnight he
climbed cautiously out of the window of
his room and slid down the yellow braid
that he had cut from the wild mountain
pony, one end of which he had tied to his
bedpost; and, in this way, came to the yard
where the pony stayed. The pony itself
was asleep now. Very cautiously he
pulled out the three white hairs from the
pony's tail. Then, taking the pony by its
yellow mane, he led it over to an oak tree;
and there he dug a hole and buried the
three white hairs. As he was stamping
down the earth over them he heard a little
noise and looked about, and what do you
think he saw?

THE SADDLER'S SON 103

There, in the moonlight at the edge of
the black shade of the oak tree stood — the
little lost Princess Sunbeam!

The old woman whom the Saddler's Son
had met when starting out on his adven-
tures was really a wicked witch and the
mother of the Monster of the Lake of
Lagremamonte. It was she who had
stolen the little Princess and changed her
by magic into a yellow forest pony. When
her son died she had exploded with a loud
bang ! and the dust of her had been blown
away.

You may imagine the King's joy at hav-
ing his darling little daughter back again;
and how proud and fond they all were of
the Saddler's Son, whom the King edu-
cated in the most expensive manner. And
to whom he gave, as a great mark of Royal
favor, a little statue of the Dragon on the
Mountain, carved by a great sculptor from

104 THE SADDLER'S SON

one of the pieces of jade-stone. And that
little statue of the Dragon on the Moun-
tain, carved hundreds and hundreds of
years ago in the Land of Far Away, of the
Time of Long Long Ago, is in the Chil-
dren's Art Centre in Boston, in one of the
cases, and you may find it if you ever go
to Boston.

V. THE KING'S CAT

THE KING'S CAT

YOU must imagine a great, flat,
empty land; fields and fields of
different shapes, with rows of bushes in-
stead of fences. Once in a while there is
a wind-mill (a sort of tower with big arms
that go round and round when the wind
blows on them) . And there are little huts,
small and mean, where the farmers live.
And far away on a hill is a great castle.
And down near the huts is a big
stone church with high towers. It is
night time; and moonlight; and quiet!
Then, in that midnight hour of long-ago
the bells from the big church rang the
hour. There was a sudden screech, and
flying through the air came a witch on the

107

io8 THE KING'S CAT

back of a black cat. The cat's eyes
gleamed like fire. Its fur snapped off
sparks — just like black cats in winter, you
know; and with a bounce it landed under
the old tree that the lightning had torn
open, near the shadow of the tree in a big
circle where the grass didn't grow.

"Sisters, are you there?" the old witch
hissed. There was no answer. Very soon,
— whish-shshshsh ! — and another came. —
Another big black cat with another old
witch on its back.

"Sisters, are you there?"

"Sh-sh-shshshshshsh.':

Another and another came, until there
were eleven witches sitting in a circle, each
with her fiery-eyed black cat behind her.
Then it was quiet again, until far away
came a swishing noise — like a big rocket.
There was a spark-spluttering streak
through the air; and — flop! — into the

A tre-mendous big black cat and, on its back, the queerest

little old woman

THE KING'S CAT ill

middle of the circle landed a tre-mendous
big black cat and, on its back, the queer-
est little old woman you ever saw. She
had a high, peaked black hat and a flying
cape; her face was ugly and queer; her
chin stuck out and her nose stuck out, and
nose and chin were close together. You
just knew she wasn't a nice person by the
way she looked. In a cracked, queer voice
she said :

Children, are you there ?J!

Mother, we await you,'3 chanted the
witches in chorus.

'The hour is come to dance! to dance!
to dance! to dance!'

Then, to the strangest music you could
imagine, these funny, twisted, evil crea->
tures danced wildly, oh, so wildly, round
and about, across and along, — all the
fierce black cats growling and yelling a
strange dance song! And this was the

"

"

112 THE KING'S CAT

music, the strange dance music to which
they danced.

"Grrr— Grrr— Yee-Ow ! Yee-Ow!
Grrr— Grrr— Yee-Ow ! Yee-Ow !"

At last, tired out, the witches sat down
to rest in the magic-burned ring under the
blasted oak tree. Then the oldest witch,
the Witches' Grand-Dam, asked,

"What news'? What plans'? My children dear,
What evil deeds can we do this year?"

And they planned all sorts of wicked-
ness, while their black cats growled ap-
proval. Finally one said that as Pierre,
the Road-Mender, had a little son, they
could do him a great deal of harm. He
must be punished because he planted and
tended bright flowers and sweet good
herbs for the fairies, but never put out
food and drink for the witches. Of course
the fairies would look after the little Pier-
rot so the witches couldn't kill him; but

THE KING'S CAT 113

some sort of spell could be laid on the baby
so he would never be any pleasure to his
father and mother.

The witches began to dance again, and
while they danced they sang a wicked
curse on Pierre, the Road-Mender; on Ma-
rie, his wife; but most of all they cursed
the Baby Pierrot. While they danced
wildly, wildly, to and fro — across and
along the moonlit fields and up and down
the little hills, they gathered each one
some evil, magic herb, while the black cats
sitting on the edge of the great circle
yelled and growled their awful dance
song.

"Grrr— Grrr— Yee-Ow ! Yee-Ow!
Grrr— Grrr— Yee-Ow ! Yee-Ow!"

When each witch had her charm plant,
they gathered once more in the circle and
each one threw her charm into the middle
of the space before the Witches' Grand-

114 THE KING'S CAT

Dam, and yelled a sudden curse, as she
sank down tired out. The black cats all
spit on the pile of herbs ; then each witch
pulled three long hairs from her head, and
the Witches' Grand-Dam twisted them to-
gether with frightful curses and tied all
the magic herbs into a little bundle.

Suddenly, "Ding - Dong! Dong!
Dong!" the church bells rang matins and
the witches jumped hastily on their cats
and scooted off through the air. The
Witches' Grand-Dam carried the charmed
bundle with her and flew low down over
the hut of Pierre, the Road-Mender; and
down, down the chimney she dropped the
magic which she hoped would work such
unhappiness.

But if witches can be busy, fairies are
not idle. The day Pierrot was born a tiny,
white, fluffy kitten was found on the door-
step.

THE KING'S CAT 115

'Want me to drown it for you?" asked
a passing herdsman of Pierre, who an-
swered,

"No little new-born thing shall suffer
from me this day. In the name of my son,
little kitty, you shall live with us as long
as you wish." And he took the kitty into
the house and gave it some nice, warm
milk.

Now Pierre didn't realize that Mimi
(that was the kitty's name) was really a
fairy nurse for the little Pierrot. Of
course fairies can't personally look after
all the babies they like, so they usually
take some specially knowing and beauti-
ful beastie and put it on guard. When
Pierrot grew bigger, his father found a
beautiful white goat tied to the gate post
and Pierre was never able to discover the
owner. We can guess that the fairies put
it there. Little Pierrot and little Mimi

ii6 THE KING'S CAT

grew fat and strong and big on the nice
milk that the goat gave.

Then came Midsummer's Day and
down the chimney came tumbling the
witches' horrid bundle of wicked wishes
and evil herbs. Plop! It fell in the
fire. Whoo-oo-oooo ! Whish-sch-sch-sh !
A black, ugly smoke puffed out, filling the
little room, making the Road-Mender and
his wife choke and cough. But even be-
fore the smoke had rolled as far as the
cradle, Mimi had sprung up from her snug
rest before the fire and jumped up on
Pierrot, laying her soft, fluffy cheek
against his, so no witch's spell could get to
his round little nose or rosebud mouth.
There was a flutter up and down, to and
fro through the air; and before Pierre had
stopped coughing, the evil smoke had all
gathered itself together and flown up the
chimney. You couldn't have seen them,

THE KING'S CAT 117

but a whole flock of little fairies with their
delicate wings had hastened to fan away
all harm from their darling Pierrot. So
the witches' curse came to nothing but
smoke; and that was sent back up the
chimney to lose itself in the air.

A year passed. Mimi was a big, white
cat now, and she and the goat and the baby
Pierrot were great friends. When the
time came round for the witches to have
their dance on Midsummer Eve, Mimi
grew very nervous and finally decided to
find out what new wickedness those horrid
creatures might try to work. So she
sneaked out at night-fall and hid herself
in a hole, away up on the old tree under
which the witches had their meeting.
Then when midnight came and the fields
were all lighted by moonlight, through the
air from every direction came flying the
witches.

n8 THE KING'S CAT

They came, one by one, each hissing,
"Sisters, are you there?'' and being an-
swered by the "Shh! Shhh!" of the others.

Then the midnight bell sounded from
the church and the Witches' Grand-Dam
came as before; and, as before, the witches
danced and danced and danced, — across
and long, — up and down, and in and out,
— while their black cats sitting in the circle
yelled, howled and shrieked their horrid
dance song. When they came to rest, the
Witches' Grand-Dam once more asked, —

"What news? What plans? My children dear,
What evil deeds can we do this year?"

"The Road-Mender's son for all our skill,
Through Mimi's might has known no ill."

Well, the Witches' Grand-Dam was
pretty angry, as you can imagine.

"Who is this Mimi?" she asked. And it
was explained to her that Mimi was a fairy

THE KING'S CAT 119

cat who guarded the little Pierrot. Hiss-
ing with rage, she issued orders.

"Seek out Mimi, pluck out nine hairs
from the nine principal parts of her, — her
paws, her head, her ears, her tail, her
mouth — wrap these in three wrappings of
the fly-blown leaves of the hexenspeise
and feed the bundle to the goat which
gives milk for that baby."

The witches danced again, and they
finally disappeared when the church bells
rang for matins. Mimi went home very
badly scared. She talked it all over with
the goat and they decided to be very
watchful and try to get ahead of the
witches. Every now and then Mimi
would feel the witches trying to pull out
the nine hairs from her nine principal
parts, but she always woke up in time to
stop their really getting them.

120 THE KING'S CAT

Almost another year had gone by when
Mimi, stretched out in her sleep, was
awakened, alas, too late, by the little
tweaks and hurts in the nine principal
parts of her, which told her the spirits of
evil had finally had their way — which gen-
erally happens if we don't watch them
carefully. She ran off to the goat, who
promised to be very careful. But it wasn't
long before the faithful creature realized
that there was a strange little lump in the
grass she was eating. She quickly spit it
out into a rat hole (so the witches
wouldn't see her) but try as she would,
she could not help swallowing some of the
juice.

That night, after a supper of good warm
milk, little Pierrot, now nearly three years
old, slept soundly for a few hours; and
then, while all the rest of the house was
asleep, he rolled out of bed at midnight,

THE KING'S CAT 121

the hour when witches' spells always work.
Dressed only in his little night-shirt, he
wandered off across the fields followed by
the very much distressed Mimi. Mimi
did not dare to leave Pierrot, to go back
and call for help, but kept hoping that
someone would find the little fellow and
take him home. All the rest of the night
Pierrot wandered on, scrambling through
the bushes and playing with his own
moon-shadow. When daylight came, he
was a pretty sleepy little boy and he lay
down under a thick bush on a bed of leaves
and went sound asleep with Mimi clasped
close in his arms to keep him warm.

When he awoke that evening, he was,
quite naturally, very hungry. A big dog
came along and Mimi said to him,

"This fairy's god-child here, Pierrot,
Must have some food to make him grow."

So the dog ran off to his home and got

122 THE KING'S CAT

a big lump of bread and brought it to Pier-
rot, who by this time was wading around
in a brook playing with the pollywogs and
really having a wonderful time. He ate
some of the bread but found it rather dry.
So Mimi, hearing a buzzy, buzzy noise,
went to the beehive and said to the busy,
busy bees,

"This fairy's god-child here, Pierrot,
Must have some food to make him grow."

And the bees very gladly gave of their
honey to make the dry bread taste good to
the little Pierrot.

They went on all that night and slept
during the day; and always somebody pro-
vided something good for little Pierrot to
eat. In the morning Mimi appealed to
the fat robins, bustling about catching the
early worms,

This fairy's god-child here, Pierrot,
Must have some food to make him grow.3

THE KING'S CAT 123

The robins looked Pierrot over and
quite agreed with Mimi. So they went off,
hundreds of them, and came back each
with a bunch of cherries in his bill. A big
yellow cat, passing by that evening, was
appealed to as usual by Mimi, and the cat
ran off home and — what do you think? —
came back with a big piece of gingerbread !
Because she said the little boy in her house
liked gingerbread better than real bread.
I guess she thought Pierrot was a real boy
all right, the way he ate that gingerbread!

On they wandered every night, along
and along, — the little three-year-old boy
in his tattered night-shirt, and the big,
worried white cat. They met a brown
goat browsing by the edge of the wood.

"This fairy's god-child here, Pierrot,
Must have some food to make him grow."

"Certainly," said the goat. "Come and
have plenty of my nice warm milk because

124 THE KING'S CAT

I know, having heard many wise people
say so, that nothing makes children grow
better than good milk."

One morning they squeezed through a
hedge and there they were in a beautiful
garden. Sitting on a lovely chair in the
garden was the Queen. They knew she
was the Queen not only because she was
dressed in beautiful silks and satins and
had a crown upon her head, but because
she was eating bread and honey, and even
Pierrot knew, —

"The queen was in the garden eating bread and
honey."

Mimi stepped forward and bowed a
most beautiful bow, which little Pierrot
copied as well as he could. Mimi nudged
him and said,

"Tell her about it. Humans won't be
able to understand me."

Pierrot had a cunning little habit of

THE KING'S CAT 125

singing almost everything he had to say,
so now he threw up his golden head and
stood straight and strong in his little tat-
tered night-shirt and sang Mimi's song: —

"A fairy's god-child, I, Pierrot,
Must have some food to make me grow."

The Queen and all her ladies were nat-
urally very much delighted, and Pierrot
and Mimi were taken into the palace and
washed and fed and dressed. Pierrot had
some lovely silk clothes and Mimi a pink
and blue bow on her neck. There they
lived, great favorites with everybody, and
the Queen taking care of them. Pierrot
was educated and cared for with the Royal
Children ; but Mimi saw to it that he never
forgot the real home. Pierrot was firmly
decided to go and find his father and
mother once more when he was big enough.

Years passed, and Pierrot was quite a
big boy, about eight years old. He stud-

126 THE KING'S CAT

ied and ate and rode pony-back with the
Royal Children, but his happiest mo-
ments were spent with Mimi. He was a
great pet of the Queen's and whenever
there was a party Pierrot always had to go
down to the parlor and sing for the
company.

One day, they were all out in the
forest when the Royal Hunt came by.
There were hunting dogs barking and bay-
ing; and horns blowing; and servants
dressed in green clothes running about
everywhere; and bold knights on horse-
back galloping along, with spears. A
frightened rabbit ran out near Pierrot,
who grabbed him up and hugged him close
in spite of the dogs and the servants. Be-
cause all of this grand array of horses and
knights and dogs and horns seemed to be
just on purpose to hurt this little bunny.
The King was rather cross, but Pierrot

THE KING'S CAT 127

sang so sweetly a little prayer for the little
beast that the King finally laughed and
went away, promising to kill only
wicked animals and not hurt bunnies and
squirrels.

"You have done very well," said Mimi.
And as she didn't praise him very often,
Pierrot went to sleep pretty well pleased
with himself.

One night Mimi could not sleep. She
was restless, and even Pierrot was awak-
ened hearing the dogs in the courtyard
below growling and whining uneasily.
Pierrot slipped out of bed to see what was
happening and he smelled smoke. He
went to open the door and found it was
locked. He had never been locked in be-
fore. Who could have done it now? The
smoke got stronger and stronger, and
Pierrot looked out the window once more;
but it was so high he couldn't jump down

128 THE KING'S CAT

even to get away from the fire. Then he
remembered that nearby slept the Royal
Children. He wondered if they had been
awakened and tried once more to get the
door open. He beat upon it and shouted,
to try to attract the attention of the
guard; but no one answered. He clasped
Mimi close in his arms, a very much fright-
ened little boy, looking out the window
and wishing very much someone would
come and save him and the Royal Chil-
dren. As he looked out, he realized that
Mimi could walk along the narrow ledge
that went from window to window even
if a human being couldn't.

'Will you go along here and wake the
Royal Children, Mimi, and take this
strong string with you?" asked Pierrot,
putting Mimi on the narrow ledge of
stone.

So Mimi very, very cautiously, a little

THE KING'S CAT 129

unsteadily because it was dangerous, crept
along the side of the palace to the window
of the Royal Children and went in. Mean-
time, Pierrot was making a long stout rope
by tearing up the sheets and tying them
together, — even taking the long velvet
curtains from the window. He hung it
out the window to see how long it was, but
it didn't anywhere near reach the ground.
So he tied it to the other end of the string
which Mimi had carried to the Prince's
room. When the Prince hung out of his
window and told Pierrot that his doors
were all locked too, Pierrot was all ready,
and said,

"Pull on the string, my Prince, there is
a strong rope you can fasten to the window
casing and slide down safely to the
ground, if you tie your curtains on to it
too. It isn't quite long enough now/3

In a very few minutes, the Prince had

130 THE KING'S CAT

pulled in the rope and had made it long
enough and hung it out the window.
Down he slid to safety; and his two little
sisters also. Pierrot was so relieved, he
almost cried.

"How are you going to get down?"
shouted the Prince. Sure enough, nobody
had thought about that. Pierrot had put
everything possible into the rope that was
now tied to the Prince's window. They
couldn't find any of the guards anywhere.
While they heard hammering at the out-
side gate, the fire had actually come into
the room where poor Pierrot was. There
seemed to be nothing but death for little
Pierrot! Meanwhile, where was Mimi?

"Mimi, Mimi," called Pierrot. And
out of the Prince's window peered a very
scared, white kitty's face, whiskers quiv-
ering, ears twitching, eyes big and black
with fear. And then it disappeared again.

THE KING'S CAT 131

Poor Pierrot! Then he gathered himself
together and sang to keep his courage up :

"Mimi, Mimi,
I cannot see
A way to flee
For you or me."

So Mimi, seeing that Pierrot was brave
enough to sing, plucked up a little cour-
age herself and crawled back along the
wall to Pierrot, still with the string tied
about her neck.

'The Prince tied the rope of sheets and
velvet to a poker and wredged it under the
window,'3 said Mimi. T have loosened
that. Pull you strongly on the string and
I will go back and kick it some more/'

So Mimi crawled back and Pierrot
pulled and pulled. Suddenly he fell
backwards, the rope gave way so quickly.
Was it broken? No! Pierrot even had
the poker tied to the end of it. So he

132 THE KING'S CAT

wedged it under his window and got out
on the window sill and shut the window
behind him, the flames were so hot and
fierce in the room. He was just going to
slide down when he remembered Mimi.
He called and called. Finally a very
much frightened pussy looked out cau-
tiously from the Prince's window.

"No, no, Pierrot,
I fear to fall,
I cannot crawl."

And Mimi looked very wild. But fai-
ries are not meant to be burned. When
Pierrot saw how frightened his dear nurse
was, he forgot to be afraid himself and
smiled and beckoned and sang again and
again.

"Come, Mimi, Here!
Don't look so queer.
There's naught to fear,
So come, my dear."

THE KING'S CAT 133

He had to sing it quite a number of
times before little Mimi picked up enough
courage to crawl along the ledge. Slowly
and cautiously she came, stopping and
trembling every now and then, and every
time she stopped Pierrot sang his little
courage-song again. Although by now his
little hands and the back of his neck were
blistered by heat. Finally Mimi reached
him, and sticking her firmly at his neck
Pierrot slid down to the Prince and Prin-
cesses in safety.

Just then the hammering on the gates
was getting fiercer and fiercer and the
gates broke down. In swept the King
with a band of soldiers. There had been
traitors in the palace who wished to kill
the little Prince and Princesses. They had
drugged the guards so that they all slept
instead of guarding the Royal Children.
The King had been away fighting some

134 THE KING'S CAT

war. He generally was. If he had stayed
home and tended to the business of his
own kingdom, things certainly would have
gone better. The next day, in the course
of the inquiry which the King was hold-
ing, the heroism of Mimi and Pierrot was
explained by the Prince.

"Who is this child and whose is the
wondrous cat?" asked the King.

The Queen told the story of the arrival
of the little Pierrot in his little torn
nightie with his beautiful cat; and ex-
plained that Pierrot was the singing boy
who entertained their guests when they
had company. So the King called Pierrot
to come before him. They dressed Pierrot
in very lovely clothes of silk and satin, put
some cold cream on his poor blistered
hands, curled his hair and made him look
perfectly lovely. And Mimi had a fresh
hair ribbon.

THE KING'S CAT 135

They went into the great room of the
Palace, with the wonderful pictures all
around the walls and the big golden
throne at one end. There were beautiful
statues standing at intervals about, and
great silken banners hung from the ceiling.
The whole court had gathered, hundreds
of gentlemen and ladies in beautiful silks
and satins, glittering with jewels. The
trumpets blew a long blast and little Pier-
rot came in at one end of the hall and
walked down toward the King, Mimi
walking beside him waving her beautiful
long tail. Pierrot kneeled respectfully
before the throne but the Prince jumped
up and took him by the hand and led him
to the King.

'Tell us who you really are,'3 said the
King. 'There seems to be a good deal of
uncertainty about you.''

Pierrot looked down at Mimi and

136 THE KING'S CAT

picked her up and held her in his arms,
and lifting his head and looking the King
bravely in the face he sang,

"A Road-Mender's son am I, Pierrot,
By witches' spell compelled to go,
Cross-country wandering.
Mimi, my kitty, white as snow,
All fairy lore does make me know
When she seems purring."

"I owe you much, O Road-Mender's
son, Pierrot," said the King. "Ask for
some worthy thing from me, for you or for
your father, and as I love my son you shall
have what you wish."

Pierrot thought a while, patting Mimi
on the head, and then said:

'Truly I have done nothing to deserve
reward; but as your Majesty loves your
own children, think how my parents
mourn for me. I would like to find them
and help my father to a better job than

THE KING'S CAT 137

that of road-mender. He is very good and

nice.3

"Well said," said the King. "So would
I wish my son to choose. I will send Her-
alds through the land and we shall soon
find your father. Have you anything spe-
cial in your mind for him?'

cYes," said Pierrot. "Jacques, the for-
ester, is dead and his hut on the edge of
the forest is empty. Could my father have
Jacques's job? Then he would be able to
protect my friends, the little forest folk,
and I could see him and my mother every
day. But I would like always to live with
my Prince.''

'Well said, well said!" cried the King.
And all the court joined in a chorus of
approval.

"And your beautiful cat shall live al-
ways wherever she wishes. She shall have

138 THE KING'S CAT

painted upon her side the Royal Mark;
and she shall be known as the King's Cat.
In every room of every palace and of every
house, there shall be kept a soft velvet
cushion for her to sleep on, and everybody
in the kingdom shall treat her lovingly.'3

And everything happened just as the
King had said. Pierre, dressed in the
green livery of a King's forester, lived to
a ripe old age, respected by everyone and
beloved by all the tiny beasts of the forest.
Marie was always the happiest of women
because her husband and little boy were so
nice. And as for the love everyone had
for Mimi — you may guess it when I tell
you that even to this day in that fair land
of France, they make lovely little images
of the beautiful fairy-cat with the King's
Mark on her side. I know, because when
I was there I got one of those little images.

VI. ALI MAHMOUD
FINDS TREASURE

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

FAR, far away, in the queer old land
of Egypt, there lived, with his
young father and mother, a lad named Ali
Mahmoud. He was born in a tiny little
house made of sunbaked bricks. It had
only one room, but Ali's mother kept that
one room beautifully clean. The little
house stood on the banks of the river Nile,
and Ali passed there his babyhood very
happily with his sturdy young father and
his beautiful mother.

Then a terrible affliction fell on the
happy family. Nebi, the father, became
blind ! At first, they could not believe it,
but gradually the terrible truth became

real to them. Ali's beautiful mother

141

142 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

wrapped her head in a yellow scarf, and,
day after day, morning after morning, she
went out to the fields to earn, by weeding
and hoeing the crops, enough money (or
enough vegetables or grain) to keep her
poor blind husband and little boy alive.
When Ali was five years old he, too, had
to go to work. At first, he had a job driv-
ing round and round and round on the
hard-trodden path the blind-folded oxen
who turned the great spiked wooden
wheels of the sakieh which hauled bucket
after bucket of water up from the muddy
river to pour over the fields and garden.
For in Egypt where Ali lived it hardly
ever rains. A funny place, Egypt! In-
stead of the water coming down from the
sky, every once in so often, the river rises
up and flows all over the land so the trees
and plants and flowers can grow.
At first, Ali was rather afraid of the

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 143

oxen. Not that they were very big oxen,
indeed, they were rather little oxen, with
humps on their necks; but, of course, they
were a great deal bigger than five-year-old
Ali. But his mother was so surprised that
her little boy could ever be afraid of any
animal that Ali never dared to be afraid
again.

As he got older, Ali worked at various
things. Sometimes he was watchman for
the ripening crops, driving away thievish
birds or beasts, or even people. He would
stand up on the little platform in a corner
of the field or orchard or vineyard, what-
ever it happened to be, flourishing a great
stick or beating upon a queer little drum,
or even sometimes trying to play upon a
reed flute as the older boys did. He
earned by all these exertions about five
cents a day, and it was a good long day's
work, too, believe me ! For he had to go

144 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

before sunrise, and didn't get home again
until dark. But no one earned very much
there on the banks of the river Nile, and
a very proud little boy was Ali whenever
he could put a little fistful of clinking
coins into his blind father's hand.

Once, when he was watching a big vine-
yard with some older boys, he saw that the
boys all took big bunches of grapes home
with them at night. So, knowing how
much his father would enjoy the fresh fruit
after the heat of the day, Ali also slipped
a great bunch of juicy grapes into the front
of his loose flowing robe. There in Egypt,
they do not wear pants and shirts as little
boys do here. They wear a long sort of
blue nightgown and a little cap on their
heads — a round cap, no visor. When Ali
got home that night and fished the grapes
out of the front of his robe and gave them
to his mother, she was surprised, and said,

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 145

"Oh! Did the owner of the vineyard
give you these grapes, Ali, to bring tome?'

Ali began to feel a little uncomfortable,
but he was a truthful child and had to ad-
mit that he had just taken them.

Dear me ! His mother did feel badly !
However, she said it was not all done,
anyhow, and she made Ali take the grapes
and one of his precious copper coins to the
owner of the vineyard and explain that he
had taken them without permission and
that his mother had sent him back, because
his mother could not have a thief in her
family. You can imagine how badly this
made Ali feel. You would not like doing
it yourself, and it was a lesson the little
boy never forgot, so perhaps it was not
really so bad, after all.

Now, mostly, when people think about
Egypt, they do not think of little boys in
blue gowns with caps on their heads, but

146 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

they think of the wise, strange old people
who used to live in that mysterious coun-
try— people like Moses and Joseph and
all those Bible people who used to be in
Egypt when Pharaoh was the King; or
they think of the people who built pyra-
mids and those wonderful great temples,
and, more interesting still, perhaps, the
tombs — places where the Egyptians put
their dead instead of burying them; and
they put all sorts of interesting and ar-
tistic and beautiful things there also, so
that the dead person might enjoy himself
in spite of being dead. They were all
heathen, you know, those old Egyptians
and believed all sorts of strange things.

Near Ali's home there were lots of these
tombs, and many people for many hun-
dreds of years had come from far away
lands to study them and the customs and
arts of the old Egypt. People that go dig-

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 147

ging around tombs and things of that sort
are called "explorers."

Now, just about this time, when Ali
was nine years old, that is, there was
a very kind Explorer Man with a long
beard who was working near by. Nebi,
Ali's father, helped haul on the ropes and
do things like that which did not need eyes,
and Ali, too, earned his nice little wages
carrying buckets of dirt out from the place
where they were digging to find treasures
of art or of history.

The Explorer Man was very anxiously
hunting for just one thing, which, after
long study, he had decided must be buried
in a tomb in that vicinity. He wanted to
find a complete list of the Kings of Egypt.
One reason why he wanted this list was so
that people could study the Bible more in-
telligently: and then, of course, another
reason was because it would make him

148 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

very famous if he could find it. Because,
for many hundreds of years, explorer
people had been hunting for that list.

He had used up about all his money, this
Explorer Man, and he thought he would
not have enough to go much farther, but
he could not stop. Then, one sad day, he
was taken with a violent fever, and all of
the men who were working for him became
alarmed. They were afraid it was catch-
ing and that they would get the fever, too.
So they went away, leaving the poor Ex-
plorer Man there all alone.

When Ali told his mother about it, she
was very angry and said, "No manly man
would go off and leave a sick person
alone."

So Ali said, "I did not leave him,
mother, I only came to tell you about it."
He thought she meant that he was not
manly — he was 9 years old — but she really

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 149

had not. "I thought you would want to
bring him here so we could take care of
him,52 continued the little boy. uHe is a
very nice Explorer Man, and kind.':

Ali's mother thought that a pretty good
idea ; so she and Nebi and Ali went to the
Explorer Man's tent and brought him
down to their cool little house on the banks
of the muddy River Nile, and nursed him
through the weeks of fever and delirium.

When he began to get better, the Nile
began to go up, — you know the way I told
you it did, — and they could not do any
digging. So the Explorer Man stayed on
at Ali's house and Ali took care of him and
ran errands for him, and waited on him.
And Ali's mother did not have to go out
and work in the fields because the Explorer
Man's board money kept them all very
nicely. And the Explorer Man naturally
liked a nice little boy like Ali to wait on

150 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

him; and he took great interest in teaching
the child about the old, old days in Ali's
old, old country. He even taught him to
read the queer picture-writing of the old
Egyptians, where stiff little outline pic-
tures of birds and beasts and boats and
fishes and all sorts of things, meant words
or even sentences; and he told Ali ever so
many stories, — the stories of old Egypt,
and of the great power of the magic words
of old Egypt. Some of these stories were
old, old, old, oh, ever so old! But Ali
loved to listen to them, as many boys and
girls like listening to stories. There was
one story about a crocodile that he par-
ticularly liked. I wonder if, perhaps, you
would like to hear it. Would you?

Once upon a time, the Herald of the
King heard that there was a traitor. He
could hardly believe it, for he loved the
King, and all the people loved the King.

Long he studied his book of magic

ALT MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 153

But he heard that a Certain Man was a
traitor to his King. This man went every
day to a pool to go in swimming. It
was not just a pool by the river. It was
a big, marble affair, rather like the Frog
Pond on Boston Common. As the Herald
did not want to tell the King there was a
traitor in the land unless he was sure there
was one, he decided to find out by his
magic, for he was a great magician, — this
Herald of the King, — to find out by magic
whether this man were or were not a
traitor.

"Bring me my ebony casket adorned
with electron, that contains my book of
magic," he ordered; and his slaves brought
it.

Long he studied his book of magic.
Then he modeled a crocodile in wax, and
the crocodile was seven inches long. He
recited over it that which he had learned

154 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

from his book of magic. He said to the
waxen crocodile, "When that Certain Man
comes to the pool to bathe, then, if in his
heart he be a traitor to his King, seize him
and drag him to the bottom of the water."

By night, he went and threw into the
water the little waxen crocodile.

The next day, the traitor came to the
pool to bathe, and up from the clear water
of his private, particular white marble
bathing pool arose that waxen crocodile,
now grown into a beast seven yards long.
He seized that traitor and dragged him
under the water, and for seven days that
traitor was under the water without
breathing.

Then the Herald said to his King,
"Would it please your Majesty to come
to see a marvel that has occurred in the
matter of a traitor?"

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 155

And the King came to the pool.

The Herald took his ebony casket,
adorned with electron, from his slaves be-
hind him, opened it, took out his thick book
of magic and read from the magical words
of that book. Then he commanded, "Oh,
thou that knowest truth and workest jus-
tice, bring to the King's feet the traitor
from out the water!'

Up from the bottom of that pool rose
that crocodile seven yards long, with the
traitor in his great jaws. And he brought
it, lumbering along, as crocodiles do,
waddle, waddle, waddle, — along the
marble pavements he brought that corpse
and laid it right at the King's feet.

Of course, the King was a King, but
he found a seven-yard crocodile lumbering
straight for him rather alarming. He
maintained his Kingly dignity as well as

156 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

he could but still he did step back a few
steps and said, "I pray you, oh Herald!
this crocodile is a little terrifying.53

The Herald spoke a few magical words,
touched the crocodile, and made it become
small and waxen and only seven inches
long. But there was a look in the eye of
the creature as he changed that said that
just holding a large, juicy traitor in his
mouth for seven days had hardly satisfied
him when he was seven yards long.

The King noticed this and said to the
Herald, "Methinks your crocodile was not
satisfied.'2

So once more the Herald spoke his
words of mighty magic, touched the croco-
dile, the little waxen crocodile, and it be-
came once more large and black and horny.
Then, just to prove that he was still King
even if he had tried to duck the original

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 157

monster of a crocodile, the King said, very
magnificently, "Have thou that which is
thine,'3 and the crocodile, with a look of
sincere satisfaction in his little crocodile
eye, seized the body of that large, fat
traitor, and plunged to the bottom of the
lake.

It is not known further what became of
it or what became of the body of that
traitor.

Do you not think that this is an amusing
story to have lasted for three or four or
five or six thousand years? — I do not know
how many, but a great many thousand.

Ali Mahmoud had studied the picture-
writing of the old Egyptians so much that
he could really help his friend, the Ex-
plorer Man, when the land should be dried
once more and strength had returned to his
kind friend's body.

158 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

One day, in an interval of rest between
difficult studies, the Explorer Man asked,
"What is your father doing now?"

"Nothing," said Ali. "He can't; he is
perfectly blind, you know. The only
work he has ever been able to do is pulling
ropes for foreigners or something of that
sort, and there is not anything now.'3

"Have you had a doctor?"

"Doctors cannot do anything when one
is blind," said Ali, in a very superior
fashion.

"Well, you never can tell," said the Ex-
plorer Man. "Ask your father to come
here."

When Nebi came, the Explorer Man
looked at his eyes and rolled up the lids
and asked him a great many questions.
Then, one day, he bought a ticket and sent
Nebi on the steamer going up the river to
the great City of Cairo, with a letter to a

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 159

doctor who was a friend of the Explorer
Man. And Ali Mahmoud and his mother
stayed at home to take care of the Ex-
plorer Man. Ali studied and copied the
wall-carvings on the old temples, and
brought home the drawings to his friend,
who was very much delighted with the lit-
tle boy's progress in knowledge. Together
they talked much of those far-off days, and
the men and the magics and all, so that
they were almost more real to Ali than the
poor life around him in the squalid little
huts by the banks of the River Nile.

Finally, the land dried up and the Ex-
plorer Man gradually regained strength
enough so that he could walk comfortably,
and they got some workmen and began to
work again.

The poor Explorer Man had spent
pretty nearly all his money by this time, so
it was very important that he should find

i6o ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

his list of names. They dug up a likely
place and, sure enough, they found a thing
like an old well, only it was square. It
was walled up with straight stones, but it
was all full of rocks and rubbish. This
well the men dug out, and they hauled out
the rocks with ropes until finally, with a
crash, some of the stones fell in and the
Explorer Man leaped down with shouts to
see what had been found.

And they didn't find anything!
Nothing but a perfectly empty square
hole. Even the paintings on the walls had
been pretty well scratched off. Somebody
else had been there ahead of them, you see.
Ali felt frightfully, as you can imagine.
The Explorer Man, being grown up, did
not show it quite so much, but I do not
doubt he felt badly also.

Well, he had money enough to try once
more; and once more he was going to try.

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 161

He studied the ground over and consulted
all the books he had and finally decided
that if that list of Kings were really any-
where, it must be buried in a certain spot.
There they dug again, and again found a
shaft, a square walled-up hole in the
ground. The stones were hauled out and
the Explorer Man eagerly slid down the
rope to see what he had found. He dis-
covered that there was nothing, — nothing
but a thick layer of dust, inches of fine
dust, — but nothing else. Feeling pretty
badly, the Explorer Man scrambled up
the rope, and the other workmen followed
him. As they were going over the edge,
some stones fell down and Ali cried
eagerly, 'Try digging the floor of this
room. It sounds hollow to me.':

The men went down there and tried lift-
ing one of the stones of the floor. Sure
enough! Below there was another shaft.

162 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

It was getting too late to find anything
that day, at least, that is what the work-
men told the Explorer Man. They all
went home for the night. But Ali over-
bueard the men planning to get into that
tomb themselves that night, and take away
everything of value, before the poor Ex-
plorer Man could find anything.

The little boy did not quite dare to
speak to his friend of this plot for fear
that there should be a fight; and there were
ten of the workmen, strong young fellows,
and the dear Explorer Man with his long
beard was still weak from the severe fever.
So, after supper, being very much worried,
Ali slipped away and went back to the
tomb and slid down into the shaft and
began to poke about.

Suddenly a stone gave way and Ali
slid swiftly out of the twilight of the shaft
into the absolute dark of the room below.

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 163

Down he slipped — it seemed to him miles,
but, of course, it could not be. He fell on
a thick layer of fine, fine dust, which rose
up all about him. Choked and stunned
he lay for a little, recovering himself.
Then he began to feel all about; and what
do you think he found? Absolutely noth-
ing but dust! No big coffin, no beads,
no boats; none of the things that he had
hoped to find. And he couldn't get out,
and it was awfully dark and the thieves
might arrive at any moment.

Ali almost cried, but he remembered in
time that he must not be afraid, and went
on feeling about in the dust, sifting out a
few tiny objects which he put in his
pocket. When he put his hand in his

/

pocket he felt the candle with which he
had provided himself. He lighted it and
began to look around. Off in one corner
he discovered a little hole. He was quite

164 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

a little boy, and he managed to wriggle
through it. He found himself in another
room, away down there under the earth,
late, late at night. And in this room,
what do you think? There was a big cof-
fin; and there was a table; and the walls
were covered with pictures. Imagine his

Then he suddenly remembered that
he could not get out, and he really
was pretty scared. After all, who
wants to spend a night in a tomb
with a coffin alongside? To steady
his courage, he began to read the picture-
writings on the wall by the light of his
little candle. He found he could make
out quite a lot of it, and was a little con-
soled when he discovered that he was in
the tomb of a very good King, because on
one wall it said, "His love was the food of
the poor, the blessing of the weak, the

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 165

riches of him who had nothing.'3 In an-
other place he learned that this was the
tomb of a King-General who had led nine
hundred men into the unhealthy country
of the South to collect and bring back
treasure ; and that the King took such ex-
cellent care of his soldiers that he brought
home safely, not only the gold, but the
whole nine hundred men.

There was one sentence, however, which
Ali could not seem to read. He could not
remember, try as he would, how the words
ought to sound. The writing was very
big and went all around the room. But it
was no use. He just could not get it.

Just then, he heard a noise, and, believe
me, he put out his candle quick, quick, as
he did not wish to attract attention. He
realized that the thieves were really open-
ing the shaft. He heard the stones being
hauled up. Bye and bye he heard a dull

166 ALT MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

thud, or several of them, rather, when the
fellows slid down the rope into the tomb
chamber. Of course, the men didn't find
anything and they were annoyed. They
were a rough, outspoken lot of crimi-
nals and their remarks were totally un-
suited to be repeated in this story, so we
shall skip them. When they finally
paused for breath, the great dust they
kicked up hunting around had come in in
clouds through the little hole in the corner
and Ali could not stand it another instant.
He gave a most tremendous sneeze. My !
That was a scared lot of thieves. They
thought it was buried Kings sneezing at
them. They did not realize that it was
only little Ali Mahmoud in his blue gown
and red cap.

While they were clasping their hands
over their ears Ali sneezed again. That
was too much for them. They seized the

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 167

rope and scrambled up to the surface and
ran away as hard as ever they could —
away, away across the Sahara Desert, each
one thinking all the others were the ghosts
of Egyptian Kings. They may be running
still for all I know, unless they died of
thirst there in the Sahara Desert. It's
quite possible.

Ali in his lonely chamber began to be
a little frightened himself, now; because,
although the rope was there, he dared not
climb it, for fear he might encounter the
thieves, and he dared not light the candle,
either. To occupy his mind, he first took a
drink of water from the little bottle he had
with him and then tried and tried to re-
member the words of the magical picture-
writing. Maybe he fell asleep. He never
could quite say. Anyhow, suddenly the
words came to him and with a great shout
he sprang up, his water bottle flying from

i68 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

his lap and breaking on the coffin of the
King, while Ali shouted the words that he
had been trying to think of for so long.

And Bang ! Rumble ! Rumble ! Bang !
A strange light filled the whole chamber.
The blue, transparent spirit of the dead
King, dressed in a straight robe heavily
embroidered, with a golden girdle, with a
jeweled dagger thrust into it and a crown
upon his head, rose from — somewhere —
to the middle of the room. A strange musi-
cal voice, speaking the language of ancient
Egypt, half chanted, half said,

'Thanks to you, thanks to you, O
little boy! You have released my spirit,
bound by envious enemies to my crum-
bling body. I, too, poor spirit as I am,
would have perished had it not been for
you, O little boy in strange garments. By
saying aloud the magic words my beloved
wife caused to be painted about my tomb,

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 169

and at the same time offering a sacrifice of
pure water poured out on my coffin, you
have lifted the spell. To you, my thanks !
My thanks ! You may ask of me any three
things your heart wishes and you will re-
ceive them, — them and my thanks, O little
boy!"

At first, as you may imagine, Ali was a
little, well — surprised at this tall, blue
person who talked with him from the mid-
dle of the air, but he liked that idea about
getting any three things that he wanted.
Most of us would. He thought a little
and then he said,

'I think that first I should like my
friend the Explorer Man to find his list of
Kings. Then I wish that my father may
receive his sight. And lastly that my
mother may never want again.'3

Ali thought this last a polite way of
asking for riches, but the old Egyptian

170 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

King-General was a wise old heathen, as
you will see. Again he spoke,

"Look once again carefully through the
dust at the head of my coffin, under that
corner, and your wishes shall be granted.'3

Puff! A rumbling which grew louder
and then died away — a spluttering and
flickering of strange lights and the great
blue spirit of the old Egyptian King-Gen-
eral vanished, leaving behind only a thick,
queer spicy smell. Something like hot
mince pie.

Very much excited Ali obediently felt
around, expecting, — well, I don't know
just what he did expect; but he felt hor-
ribly taken in when all he could find was
a small round thing, something like a fat
lead pencil. He tucked it into his pocket.
But he could not find anything else. He
felt and he fumbled until he was a very,
very dirty little boy but there wasn't any-

ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 171

thing else there but fine, fine, gritty lime-
stone dust. He decided that he must have
dreamed of the spirit of the Egyptian
King-General, so taking his courage in his
hands he climbed up the rope and went
home.

The next morning, he told the Explorer
Man and his mother all about his adven-
tures in the tomb. About the thieves who
had come and had run away when he
sneezed ; and about the spirit of the Egyp-
tian King who had given him such high
hopes, only to leave him the more disap-
pointed. He pulled from his pocket the
little objects of porcelain and green stone,
— little things like those in our museums;
and the fat lead pencil thing he gave to
the Explorer Man. When his friend saw
that, he turned perfectly white. His hand
trembled, as very, very carefully he
opened the end and shook out a roll of

172 ALI MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE

yellowish cloth covered with fine writing.
It was the list of the Egyptian Kings ! It
was what all his life the dear Explorer
Man had dreamed of finding. It was go-
ing to prove the truth of things which he
knew were true, but some people did not
believe. It was going to make him a fa-
mous man, too, and make it possible for
him to go on with his studies.

There were rejoicings in that little
house on the bank of the River Nile that
day. And when the afternoon boat from
Cairo stopped at the little landing steps
just down the street, there stepped off a
lively young man, who ran gaily to Ali's
house. Yes, you have guessed it. It was
Nebi, Ali's father. His eyes were entirely
well again. It seemed as if there could
not possibly be any more happiness than
there was right there on the banks of the
old Nile that night.

ALT MAHMOUD FINDS TREASURE 173

The Explorer Man, feeling that now he
would be able to go on being an Explorer
Man for many, many years, asked Nebi to
work with him every year. So, you see,
Nebi had a steady job and his lovely wife,
Ali's mother, would never be poor again,
for a steady job is a whole heap better than
money invested anywhere.

The little boy's father, Nebi, had re-
ceived his sight, and Ali's friend, the Ex-
plorer Man, had what he sought, and Ali's
mother would never be poor again, so the
old Egyptian King-General made good his
word, you see.

But what was the treasure which Ali
found? you ask, the name of this story be-
ing ' 'All Mahmoud finds Treasure.' ' Why,
those three things for the three people he
loved best, of course. That was better
treasure than diamonds and rubies and
emeralds for himself. Don't you think so?

VII. THE ENCHANTED
DUCKLING

THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING

GREAT festivities were going on in
the home of Quang Su, the potter.
Chang Lee's little brother was going away
to school, and, as is customary on these oc-
casions, they were having a party with
cakes and rice and tea, with candles
lighted and long streaming banners of col-
ored paper, which were burned in a splut-
tering flame to a gray soft ash. Towards
nightfall there were preparations for won-
derful fireworks.

Chang Lee entered into it all and en-
joyed it hugely until some chance remark
of one of the guests made him think a
little, and he went to his mother and said,
'Why cannot I go to school? I am older

than my brother.'3

177

178 THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING

And his mother, as was her wont when
Chang Lee questioned her about things,
said, "Oh ! you must stay at home with me.
I must have some little boy with me."

But Chang Lee insisted, "Why cannot
my brother stay with you, and I go to
school." And his father, nearby, said,
"You are blind, my boy, and blind boys
do not go to school.'3

"Blind," said Chang Lee, "What is
blind?"

Chang's mother smoothed his head and
said, "Never mind, now, little son." But
Chang did mind, so she said, "You cannot
see with your eyes, dear boy, only with
these," and she picked up and caressed his
hand with its long slender fingers.

"Do people have to have eyes to go to
school," asked Chang Lee. "I do lots of
things here: why can't I in school?'

But it was plain to him from the

THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING 179

attitude of everyone around that being
blind was something that shut one out
from ordinary life. He could not under-
stand it because he had never thought
about it before. He had been born with-
out the use of his shiny black eyes, and
had never found out before that he was
different from other people. You may
imagine that he did not like the feeling
very well. Nobody wants to be queer,
and Chang went off by himself into
a corner to think about it. His puppy
came up and thrust a wet, sympathetic
nose into the little boy's hand, but Chang
did not feel comforted. The festivities
went on about him, but he had no part in
them and never would have because he
was this strange, uncomfortable thing
called "blind."

Bye and bye he crept down between the
rice fields, down to the river, to hide his

i8o THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING

grief among the tall reeds growing there,
and to try to realize just what it would
all mean, this being "blind." Very much
alone he felt; very much alone he prob-
ably always would feel. Suddenly he
heard a great commotion. A sound of
heavy bodies floundering about in the shal-
low water and of a small body splashing
desperately nearer and nearer. Bump ! and
right against his side came a downy little
duckling, and cuddled up to the sad little
boy. Chang took it up and held it close
to his heart, for it came just at the right
moment to make him feel not so much
alone; and, in a way, the trembling,
hunted little ball of feathers seemed to
him somewhat like himself.

Two great dogs burst through the rushes
and leaped slavering against the terrified
little Chang, who shielded the trembling

THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING 181

duckling with his arms. The dogs jumped
and grabbed at Chang's sleeve, but, before
they could knock him down, or get at the
duckling, they were whistled off by a man
who apparently had been watching the
scene for some time. He called the dogs to
heel and started off muttering to himself,
"Spunky child ! All white and trembling,
but he would not betray the trust the little
duckling had in him. Some boy ! Wish he
were mine/' and he turned back to speak
to Chang.

First he spoke very gruffly, 'That's my
duck; my dogs scared it up,'' but Chang
still clung to the duckling and looked in
the direction of the harsh voice without of-
fering to relax his hold. Then the man
said, 'Well, keep it, if you want to; but
you will never get on in life if you go pick-
ing up lame ducks instead of siding with

182 THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING

strong dogs or powerful men," and he
strode away with his gun on his shoulder
and his dogs at his heel.

Chang patted and smoothed the feath-
ers of the little duckling until it ceased to
tremble. Then he remembered what the
man had said, and wanted to see if the
duckling really were lame. He set it down
and held his sensitive little hand on
the duckling's back, while the duckling
walked along. But the little bird was not
really lame. It only walked a bit crooked
on account of three long, rough feathers
which grew from the side of its head.

Chang decided to keep that duckling for
himself, but he didn't quite dare to tell of
it at home. One night, however, his mother
heard him putting into his prayers a little
prayer to make his duckling walk straight.
At first, she thought he meant himself and
she was rather sad about it, but when she

THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING 183

found out it really was a duckling, she
was gently amused; as is the wont of
grown up people with little ones.

Now that his brother was away, Chang
played by himself most of the time. He
was rather neglected by everyone, and day
after day he went down by the river to
feed and play with the little lame duck-
ling. Every day he saved some of his rice
and took it to his pet. From stroking the
duckling, Chang grew to know every
feather on it, and those three long, rough
ones always made him wonder. One
day, while the duckling was swimming
about, Chang pulled a handful of clay
from the river bank and deftly molded a
little figure exactly like his dear, podgy
duckling, except that he could not make
the three, long, rough feathers. He tried
leaves and rice and coarse grasses, but
nothing gave just the same effect.

184 THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING

Meanwhile things were not going very
well in Chang's family; nor in the whole
village, nor countryside, for a great fam-
ine lay upon the land. More and more
difficult Chang found it to spare even
enough rice for his duckling from his own
very scanty portion. But it never occurred
to him not to do it. So he went hungry
himself and got very thin and white; but
the little duckling was always fed some-
thing. One day, when Chang went down
to the river, the duckling seemed to notice
how thin and hard the gentle little hand
that caressed her had become, for, rolling
her little round eyes up at her pale-faced
master, she — laid an egg for him !

Chang was delighted when he found the
fresh, smooth, warm egg. He took it home
to his mother who was feeling rather sick
just then. I suppose she was sick because
she had been giving the best part of her

THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING 185

food to her husband and children, because
that is the way mothers generally act. But
Chang was so keen for her to eat the egg his
duckling had laid, that she did so, and it
seemed to have a magical effect. His mo-
ther's eyes grew bright and her cheeks pink
and she declared herself entirely well
again.

Now, the Mandarin of the village was
also sick. He did not have any fresh food
either and the doctors declared that he
could not get well without it. No vege-
tables had grown for a long time. The lo-
custs had passed over the land and ruined
all the crops. The river fishes had all
been killed and eaten and the wild birds
were all dead or gone away, except, of
course Chang's beloved duckling. The
next day the duckling laid another egg for
Chang, but the little boy, weak though he
was from hunger, would not eat it, and

1 86 THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING

took it to his mother, who sent it as a pres-
ent to the Mandarin.

Now, you would think that the Man-
darin would have been very much pleased
with that present, wouldn't you? Instead
of which, he was as mad as fury, and
wanted to know where the egg came from,
and threatened to kill Chang's father if
the duck that laid the egg were not im-
mediately sent to him.

Chang's father went to the little boy
and told him of this, and said, "Now bring
your duckling here, because I well know
that our Mandarin, who has a reputation
for keeping his word, especially when it
is a cruel word, will do just as he has
threatened."

Poor little Chang — he was desolate in-
deed ! He knew he must sacrifice his duck-
ling to save his father; but the duckling
loved him and his father never had. How-

THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING 187

•

ever, his duty had to be done and he went
down to the river to get the duckling. He
stood there among the withered reeds lis-
tening for the last time to the duckling's
soft splashings, and again, as on that other
day, he made a figure of his beloved one
from clay. Once again, the rough feathers
bothered him until, thinking it would not
make much difference as the duckling was
soon to be killed and eaten, he pulled out
the three rough feathers from the duck-
ling's neck, weeping and asking pardon
and explaining how he wanted as perfect
a figure as possible of his dear. As he
plucked out the feathers he softly kissed
his duckling on the top of its downy head.
Imagine his surprise when he was sud-
denly left with only the three rough
feathers clutched in his little hand. A cu-
rious little feeling as of a very soft breeze,
or a very large butterfly passing, made

i88 THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING

him raise his head. Even while his clever
fingers were deftly placing the three rough
feathers in the neck of the clay figure of
his dear duckling, out of this soft breeze
came the sweetest little voice, like the
ringing of a silver bell.

"Dear little Chang,'1 said the voice, "I
am the Spirit of Love, and you have set
me free. The wicked spirits of evil had
enclosed me in the body of a little duck-
ling and if that body had been killed, they
would have triumphed and all that is good
would have vanished for a long time.
Only if the three rough feathers were
pulled out with love, and placed in a fig-
ure of my duck's body could I be free.
These feathers were the marks of the
strongest of the evil spirits; the Spirit of
Envy, which is hearing and thinking evil
of people; the Spirit of Lying, which is
speaking unkind things of people; the

THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING 189,

Spirit of Uncharitableness, which is look-
ing for and finding unkindness in every-
one and everything. You have freed me
from their wicked thrall and never again
can they get power over me, for never
again shall I be so weak as to doubt the
strength of Good, and so let in their
wicked spells.'3

And Chang was left alone by the river
side with his little clay duckling, glad that
his pet had escaped the wrath of the Man-
darin. He went home and told his par-
ents the whole story. His father and
mother took him up to the Palace, and
there, bowed on their knees, they told the
whole story to the Mandarin. Quite nat-
urally, being a very wicked man himself,
he decided that they were lying to him.
With roars of rage, he shouted for his
headsman to come and cut off the heads
of Chang Lee's family one by one until

igo THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING

someone should tell him where the live
duckling really was.

Chang's father and mother were kneel-
ing with their foreheads on the ground,
trembling and praying, and fully expect-
ing that their heads would be cut off at
any moment. The headsman was stamp-
ing with his feet and flourishing his great
axe and, altogether, it was a most fear-
some occasion. Of course, Chang could
not see any of these things and, being a
little boy, he could not believe such ter-
rible things could happen, so he fearlessly
stood up before the Mandarin and held
out the little clay image of his duckling
and explained once more :

"This is the image I made of my duck-
ling. I pulled out these three feathers
here from the neck of the live duckling
and put them into the neck of this duck-
ling, and my duckling was there no

The clay duckling on the floor before the Mandarin

laid an egg

THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING 193

longer/3 and he laid the clay image down
where all could see it.

The Mandarin started to give a great
roar and the headsman came nearer and
nearer to Chang's kneeling family, when
suddenly, there was a sound of tinkling
glass and — the clay duckling on the floor
before the Mandarin where Chang had
placed it, laid an egg!

t\Vell, you can imagine the surprise of
the Mandarin — of the whole court also.
The headsman, paralyzed with astonish-
ment, stood with his axe in the air, and his
mouth open. Again there was a sound of
tinkling glass. A great roar came from
the Mandarin, who suddenly sprang up
with shrieks of agony. He had become
perfectly blind! As soon as the Manda-
rin stopped roaring, a little voice like a
silver bell came ringing through the air
amid the tinkle of glass, and explained

194 THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING

that, until the Mandarin could see a little
of the light of brotherhood with the weak,
no other light would he ever be able to see.

The Mandarin, thinking to buy off the
spirit that had blinded him, said, "Let the
boy and his family go free." But still he
was blind. Because, you see, he did not
do it because he felt friendly with Chang's
family, but just because he was afraid for
himself.

The rains suddenly began and, with the
rain, they could plant more grain there in
the village. But, alas, they had eaten all
the seed ! The Mandarin chuckled because
he knew they would have to buy their seed
grain from him. He had great storehouses
of grain and he intended to charge a good
round sum for his seed, when suddenly it
occurred to him that that was not exactly
a brotherly thing to do, to charge those
poor people, who already had spent almost

THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING 195

everything they had during the famine, a
great sum for their seed. So he ordered
a sufficiently large amount to plant every
field to be given freely to the owners of
the fields. Peals of thunder rang out
through the storm while the grain was be-
ing distributed; and suddenly, the Man-
darin saw a streak of lightning! And he
knew that the curse of his eye-blindness
had been lifted by the Spirit of Love, just
as his heart-blindness had been lifted by
a little boy.

So the Mandarin adopted Chang and
brought him up as his heir, educating him
with the most especial care, until Chang
learned fully as much as his brother who
could see. When Chang grew up and was
a Mandarin himself, and ruled over that
countryside, he took as his especial mark
the figure of the fat little duckling. And
one of these little ducklings is in the Chil-

196 THE ENCHANTED DUCKLING

dren's Art Centre, in Boston, and the chil-
dren in Boston who were the first to listen
to this story, have seen the three rough
feathers on the duckling's neck.

CENTRAL CIRCULATION

CHILDREN'S ROOM

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